Wu Fei's Music Daily

Hi everyone, This piece was composed and recorded yesterday, inspired by an evening walk I had with friends a week ago in Gent, Belgium. After a meal at an Italian restaurant (owned by an amazing chef from southern Italy), my friends and musical collaborators Sarah Yu Zeebroek and Geoffrey Burton took me for a stroll. In the gorgeous medieval city of Gent (also spelled Ghent), many offices, homes...

Hi everyone, How have you been? I am back in Nashville from Belgium. I am enjoying the sunny spring day in Tennessee though I do miss the wonderful collaborations I had during my residency at Handelsbeurs Concert in Gent. It was so lovely to see old friends and meet new friends. The House of Wu Fei has been born and I can’t wait to bring this project to other places in the world! Today I recorded...

Hi everyone, I have missed you all! My concert residency at the Yale Schwarzman Center last week was inspiring. I met many new friends from giving presentations at: * The Cooperative Arts & Humanities Magnet High School * Yale School of Music students * Yale’s Asian American Cultural Center * New Haven Chinese Cultural Cooperative I was also given an eye opening tour at the Wu Tsai Institute of Ya...

Hi everyone, This piece was created and recorded yesterday on two-track guzheng. By the time you open this newsletter, I will be on my way to New Haven, Connecticut. On March 2, Saturday, 7:30-9:00pm, I am giving a concert with my dear music collaborator Abigail Washburn at the Yale Schwarzmen Center. More details here . You can hear our album “ Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn” on Smithsonian Folkways...

Hi everyone, This three-voice guzheng composition was recorded yesterday, the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration. Last night, the bright moon rose high and lit up the entire forest (photo below). It was the first full moon of the Year of the Wood Dragon. Spring is the season to plant seeds. I am excited to share my new music residency that will take place in Europe from March 10-18, 2024...

Hi everyone, This piece was created and recorded yesterday February 22, 2024. Nine years ago on this day, my husband and I and our two babies moved to the United State from Beijing, China. Our daughter was two and half years old, and our son was only three months old. It has been an amazing nine years making Nashville our home. My parents also joined us from China just before the pandemic, and the...

Happy Monday everyone, I created and recorded this three-track guzheng composition yesterday inspired by the spring energy in the forest. Everything is coming back to life. Last week, I saw a frozen snake waking up from hibernation. It just lay there not moving (in photo) waiting to become softer and warmer. What a process one’s life can be! “The plan for the year lies in the spring” 一年之计在于...

Hi everyone, This guzheng étude was created and recorded yesterday. I designed a new scale to try different tone colors. My hands played an octave apart mostly striking the same pitches with occasional different pitches. When the pitch changed unexpectedly, there was a delayed surprise in my hearing. At the same second, it triggered me to shift volume from one hand to the other. I felt like a pend...

Hi everyone, This piece was written and recorded yesterday. It will be the last one before the lunar new year changes to the Year of the Wood Dragon on Saturday, February 10! You can hear my excitement in the piece. The dawn sky yesterday morning was magnificent (photo below). I truly hope the new year will bring much more peace, health and laughters to you all! 祝大家龙年吉祥如意，事事顺心。See y...

Hi everyone, I have missed you all very much! The residency in Winnipeg last week was an absolute delight! I met so many people and made new friends who came to both of my concerts. Winnipeg is a very special place and I’d love to present my work there again. Please see the photos (some are from my phone, some are sent by audience members):  1. Judith Lavitt (born in Shanghai in 1941), left China...

Yesterday, I hiked up the hill in the morning at the lowest temperature that I have ever experienced in Nashville: -14 Celsius or 6.8 degrees Fahrenheit. It was beautiful to see the white forest under the sun and the clouds (photo below). I stood at this spot and thought about the rewards of doing something difficult. I hope this piece brings you a moment of joy. My Canada debut is coming up next...

Hi everyone, I am snowed in in Nashville. It is the biggest snowfall since I have been living here. It is -9 Celsius now in the middle of the day. I hope you are all staying warm or cool wherever you are! Wu Fei 吴非 Wufeimusic.com | hellogoldmountain.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wufeimusic.substack.com/su...

Hi everyone, I composed this multitrack guzheng piece yesterday, performed by me. I was inspired by a poem written by Li Bai (701 - 762 A.D.), one of the most famous Chinese poets from the Tang Dynasty. The poem is called The Waterfall of Mount Lu 望廬山瀑布: 日照香爐生紫煙，遙望瀑布掛前川。 飛流直下三千尺，疑是銀河落九天。 My translation: Sunlight shines on the incense burner and illuminates its...

Hi everyone, Happy holidays to you all! By the time you receive this newsletter, I will be on my way to New Zealand to be with family members in the southern hemisphere. It has been another wonderful year for me sharing my daily thoughts and music with you. Thank you for being here with me, and I hope my music has brought joy to your life. I made this medley recording yesterday. All the folk melod...

Hi everyone, I want to thank the new paid subscribers in the last week! Your support is very much appreciated it! This new two-track guzheng piece was composed and recorded yesterday. I was inspired by playing with a dear friend - a banjo maser Béla Fleck last week in Nashville where we both call home. It was a rare occasion that we got to just improvise as a duo. Banjo has five strings. In this r...

Hi everyone, I just recorded this guzheng night song. You might hear my husband opening and closing his car door at the end — I decided to just leave the noise in as a part of my improvisation. I’d also like to tell you about a concert I’ll be playing next year on March 14, 2024 in Ghent, Belgium. You can buy tickets here ; the concert description is below. House of Wu Fei: Tides and Time The prem...

This solo guzheng improvisation was recorded yesterday, twelve hours after a massive tornado that tore across middle-north Tennessee. We were lucky (again) that the tornado missed our area by not too far. Two suburbs of Nashville -Clarksville and Hendersonville were hit the worst, Lives were lost and houses were destroyed. I was driving to pick up my daughter from a friend’s house when the state-w...

Hanukkah sameach! This solo guzheng night song was created and recorded during the sunset of Dec.7th as we entered this year’s Hanukkah. Wish you all a stronger year ahead with health, wisdom and joy! If you are in Nashville, I’d like to share a performance that I’ll be part of as my last public concert of 2023. Wednesday, 12/13, 7pm at Tempo Address: 2179 Nolensville Pike, Nashville, TN 37311 The...

Good morning everyone, This three-track prepared guzheng composition was created and recorded yesterday. Prepared instrument is when musical instruments whose timbre has been altered by placing various objects (preparations) on or between the instrument's vibrating strings (or other sound source). I put seven metal key chain rings on seven different strings in the middle register and a cotton bana...

Hi everyone, It is my pleasure to invite you to the "Creativity and Collaboration in Transnational Chinese Music", part of the Conversation in Creative Practice series organized by the Department of Music, SOAS University of London. It’s on Tuesday December 5, 2023 at 3-5pm GMT (EST 10am | CST 9am | MST 8am | PST 7am) in Room G52 (SOAS main building). I will be remotely joining composer Yi-Chen Ch...

This multitrack guzheng composition was created and recorded yesterday, inspired by one of my favorite poems from the Song Dynasty in China: Water Melody 水调歌头, written by Su Shi 苏轼 (1037 - 1101 A.D.) on the Moon Festival in the year of 1076 A.D..  My calligraphy (photo below) follows the traditional order of Chinese writing, from top to bottom and right to left. The four bigger characters on...

Dear all, As the United States entering the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to send my appreciation to you for the support for my work either from May 3, 2020 when I launched my daily music on Substack, or from yesterday as a new subscriber. I am grateful for connecting to you everyday in this very special way. It amazes me that I receive new subscriptions everyday from all over the world. I tune mys...

This three-track night song was created and recorded on guzheng and valiha yesterday, performed by me. The guzheng is a traditional Chinese 21-string zither and valiha is a traditional tune zither from Madagascar. The photo below is my mother in Beijing in 1973. She was 25 years old and visiting her family briefly. Between 1969-1975, my mother was one of the 17 millions of sent-down youth during C...

Kilometer zero was composed and recorded yesterday on two-track guzheng. The term is also written km 0 . In many countries, kilometer zero is a term which distances are traditionally measured and some use this as their official country location or coordinates for faster search at space satellites, this is also used for measuring distances between different countries around the world. Historically,...

Dear all, Thank you for being patient for me to resume my daily music. I have come home safely from a wonderful tour in: Decorah, Iowa; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Stoughton, Wisconsin. I got to play in beautiful and legendary venues for the first time, and made many new friends. How humbled I am for the support and love from everyone! I want to send my deepest gratitude to my music collaborator Abiga...