看 & 聽: Chinese Art and Music, Gao Hong, pipa, with Jan Stuart

Enjoy performances on the Chinese pipa (lute) by virtuoso Gao Hong alongside works of Chinese art, including an image of the instrument as it was played more than one thousand years ago. Watch her perform classical and contemporary pieces to complement artworks showing the pipa in the hands of Buddhist deities and celestial beings, including those said to reside in the moon. Listen to her original piece “Flying Dragon” while exploring dramatic depictions of dragons in Chinese ceramics and paintings. Curator Jan Stuart joins Gao Hong for an exploration of the fascinating place of the pipa in Chinese music and visual art.

Gao Hong graduated from Beijing’s elite Central Conservatory of Music. Since coming to the United States, she has performed at the Lincoln Center Festival, Carnegie Hall, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and at festivals in Paris, Caen, 米蘭, and Perth. She has presented concertos for the pipa with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Heidelberg Philharmonic, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the China National Traditional Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony, and the Women’s Philharmonic (舊金山), among others. 在 2017 she became the first Chinese musician to play the National Anthem at an NBA basketball game when she did so on pipa for the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis.

Jan Stuart is the Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries.