Fei Will Perform Solo and with Special Guests in New OZ Arts Program Inviting Artists to Share Work-in-Progress with Peers and Audiences
NASHVILLE, TENN. – The Beijing-born, Nashville-based composer, vocalist and performer of the guzheng (21-string Chinese zither) has garnered international acclaim for her own work and for collaborations with musicians including Abigail Washburn and Béla Fleck, Billy Martin (of Medeski-Martin-Wood), and John Zorn. OZ Arts Nashville welcomes her for a casual evening in which she will perform solo and with special guests as part of The Artists’ Lounge, the new work-in-progress series in the contemporary arts center’s lounge space. The Artists’ Lounge gives artists opportunities to develop work before a live audience, and gives fellow artists and audiences a place to dwell, and to and experience work as it is being developed.
Doors will open at 6pm, and the performance will begin at 7pm. Admission is free (with an optional pay-what-you-will donation). OZ Arts’ full bar will be open for business. For more information, please visit www.ozartsnashville.org. OZ Arts is located at 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle in Nashville, Tenn.
Fei began playing guzheng at the age of six, and spent her formative years studying composition at the China Conservatory of Music. More than 2,000 years old, the instrument became prominent during the Qin period (221 to 206 BCE) and by the Tang Dynasty (618 CE to 907 CE), when it was arguably the most commonly played instrument in China. Fei employs many techniques while playing the guzheng, realizing its potential to create sounds evoking a cascading waterfall, thunder, horses’ hooves, and even a scenic countryside. At OZ Arts, she will perform a selection of classical guzheng pieces, Chinese folk songs and her own compositions and improvisations. Throughout the performance, she will give brief introductions to the origins and cultural contexts of the traditional pieces, and to the theory and practice underlying her work.
Wu Fei studied improvisation and composition under the direction of Fred Frith. Her commissions range from a composition for the Percussions Claviers de Lyon (France) that premiered in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, to live performances in Paris and Tokyo for Hermès. She has composed for Balinese gamelan, symphony orchestra, choir, string quartet, chamber ensemble, film and modern dance. She has performed at The Stone and MoMA in New York City, North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, Vossa Jazz Festival in Norway, Europalia in Belgium, Beijing MIDI Festival, and Madame Guitar Festival in Italy. Fei has also been a guest lecturer & performer at the China Conservatory of Music, University of Richmond, University of Colorado at Boulder and more.
Her solo albums are A Distant Youth (2007, Forrest Hill, Italy; 2012 re-released on Naturebliss Records, Japan) and Yuan (2008, Tzadik Records). Her most recent release is Pluck (2011), recorded with Brooklyn-based classical guitarist Gyan Riley. She is currently touring and collaborating with American banjo player/singer-songwriter Abigail Washburn.
For more information, please visit www.wufeimusic.com.
About OZ Arts Nashville
As the newest 501(c)3 contemporary arts institution in the Midsouth Region, OZ Arts’ particular style of programming has begun to transform the cultural landscape of Nashville. Utilizing the venue’s flexibility, OZ Arts presents the work of leading artists from around the world, offering an intimate context for performing and visual art programs that challenge and inspire a diverse range of curious audiences.
OZ Arts also serves as a catalyst for local creativity through a program called TNT (Thursday Night Things). TNT is a quarterly series of unexpected collaborations with Nashville-based artists from varying creative disciplines. OZ Arts’ “blank slate” provides a platform onto which these artists can create, develop and present a one-time-only event that would traditionally not be seen in a visual art gallery or theatre.
OZ Arts is located in the former C.A.O. cigar warehouse owned by Nashville’s Ozgener family. Their generosity provided the seed money that breathed new life into the column-free, 10,000 square-foot space nestled amidst artfully landscaped grounds.
Since it opened in February 2014, OZ Arts Nashville “has fundamentally changed the creative landscape of Music City” (ArtsNash). Under the artistic leadership of Lauren Snelling, its first two-seasons have brought to the city luminaries such as Philip Glass and Tim Fain, Tim Robbins’ The Actors’ Gang, Peter Brook’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Vijay Iyer, Laurie Anderson, Wayne McGregor’s company Random Dance, ETHEL and BANDALOOP. These programs have consistently played to sold-out audiences and local and national acclaim.
http://www.ozartsnashville.org/
OZ Arts Nashville Media Contacts
Nashville press, please contact Amy Atkinson at Amy Atkinson Communications, 615.305.8118 or amy@amyacommunications.com.
National press, please contact Blake Zidell at Blake Zidell & Associates, 718.643.9052 or blake@blakezidell.com.