Tonight, renowned pipa player Zhao Cong will join the piano and string quartet in the "The Most Beautiful Time – Zhao Cong and Her Friends" concert at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
Since becoming the director of the Central Chinese Orchestra at the beginning of this year, Zhao Cong has had many new thoughts on the development and exploration of folk music.
On the eve of the performance, she gave an exclusive interview to reporters.
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On February 3 this year, pipa player Zhao Cong was appointed as the head of the Central Chinese Orchestra. The Central Chinese Orchestra, known as the "National Folk Music Team", has welcomed the youngest female leader since its founding.
Zhao Cong came from a musical family and began to learn pipa from his mother at the age of 6. She is a happy piano child, and under the education and inspiration of her mother, she loves this instrument from the bottom of her heart.
Zhao Cong said that he was very lucky and met many mentors and friends along the way. She studied at the Affiliated High School of Jilin Art College under professor Sun Shulin. After being admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music, he studied under the famous pipa player Professor Li Guanghua. After graduation, she was admitted to the Central Chinese Orchestra with the first place.
This first-class student, who has been following the steps step by step, is particularly sensitive to fresh trends. When he first graduated, Zhao Cong participated in the girl group Music Cat (Musical Cat), which included both Western instruments such as violin and folk instruments such as pipa. When the violinist walked around in front of the stage and played, Zhao Cong thought to himself: Why can't the pipa sit there honestly and play? So she invented the first piggyback lute that could be played standing. When she saw someone playing the crystal violin, she invented the crystal lute.
Over the years, Zhao Cong has visited more than 50 countries and regions in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania. More than 40 foreign heads of state have listened to her piano. She has won the first prize of the National Youth Professional Pipa Competition, the "Overseas Promotion Individual Contribution Award" of the former Ministry of Culture, and the gold medal of the San Jose International Musical Instrument Competition in the United States. The Western media said of her: "Zhao Cong used the pipa to tell the world the beauty of contemporary Chinese music. ”
From a pipa player to the head of the Central Chinese Orchestra, Zhao Cong has been thinking and innovating. In the past, she thought about how to play better and how to write new works that are more interesting. Nowadays, she thinks more about the exchange and integration of Chinese folk music and world music, and she hopes to let the world know more about China through the language of music.
Find the right language to truly integrate
Shangguan News: At the upcoming "The Most Beautiful Time – Zhao Cong and Her Friends" concert, you will have cross-border cooperation with the piano and string quartet. With such a chic combination, how do you want to feel to your audience?
Zhao Cong: At the snap of a finger, through ancient and modern times, without asking questions, free and boundless, is the theme of our concert. In fact, there are not so many boundaries in music, the core of music is the expression of emotion, and I hope that this combination can move people with emotion.
Shangguan News: How did you come up with the idea of launching such a "Rubik's Cube Ensemble" in 2016?
Zhao Cong: I have been experimenting with diverse combinations of different instruments. When pianist Liu Xingchen, violinist Xie Lingjie and Zhao Yinan, violaist Li Shanxi, and cellist Li Cheng, several of us were combined, the first word that came to my mind was "Rubik's Cube". The Rubik's Cube has different faces, unpredictable and harmonious. In 2016, our first song "Rose Tango" was welcomed after meeting the audience at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, which made us very inspired.
Shangguan News: Compared with other instruments, what is the biggest feature of the lute in terms of artistic expression? What is the most attractive charm?
Zhao Cong: Although the pipa is known as the "king of folk music" in China, it was actually passed down from Persia, and the ancestor of the pipa was called Wudeqin. Pipa has been developing and progressing since it was introduced to China. Our Chinese culture is very inclusive, and various musical elements are well absorbed by this instrument, so now we can play various styles of music with the pipa. As a "mixed-race child", it can be literate and martial, both Western and Eastern. The ancient song of the pipa has a lofty artistic conception, and when it is combined with popular music and electroacoustic, it will not violate the sense of harmony.
In my opinion, the pipa is actually a carrier, a language, in this era it can express more of a fusion sound, presenting world music.
Liberation Weekend: In recent years, many folk music players have tried to do cross-border integration, but integration is not simply one plus one equals two, how can different styles of instruments really blend together?
Zhao Cong: When different instruments are combined, we must first find a common language. Only when the language is right can it really be integrated. For example, the pipa and piano ensemble "Spring River Flower Moon Night", which is a Chinese work, will be relatively mainly based on the pipa. When I worked with the string quartet on "For Alice," I would cooperate with them a little more. Each instrument must listen to each other, give way to each other, and cannot adhere to their original expression.
Wooden doll, what kind of sound can you still make?
Shangguan News: You once said that you are a "pipa practitioner", why do you use the word "practice"? If art is a practice, what is the state you are pursuing?
Zhao Cong: Cultivation is to keep pursuing and not setting limits on yourself. The realm I pursue is boundless. The world is changing all the time, people's thoughts are always changing, and I want to find a balance in this ever-changing situation according to my feelings.
Shangguan News: There are many songs in this concert that you composed yourself, such as "Bloom", "Silk Road Flying Sky", "Rose Tango", etc. When did your creative path begin?
Zhao Cong: I have never studied composition. After graduating from college, I began experimenting with adaptations while recording my first album, Carmen. In 2000, together with composer Ma Jiuyue, I adapted the famous pipa song "Ten Faces Ambush". "New Ten Faces Ambush" only uses the most classic melody of the original song, and the rest becomes rock music, accompanied by electronic music. Because the adaptation was so bold, I was worried that the audience might be difficult to accept for a while, so I decided to test the waters at the Asian Music Festival in Seoul, South Korea. As a result, the audience of 20,000 people applauded enthusiastically. Hans Nelson, a well-known sound engineer and chairman of the "Sound Asia" jury, loved the song, and Universal Records recorded my second album "Listening to China" for me, which was the first time in universal records history that a solo album of Chinese national instrumental music was released.
In 2014, I wrote the Pipa Concerto "Silk Road Flying Sky", before that I mainly adapted or composed some small works, and later I wrote the pipa concerto "Fudge Tianchang", the pipa suite "Music Ming Oriental" and other large works. Last year I also composed a song called "Kunpeng Zhi".
A sentence by Mr. Liu Dehai, a pipa master, had a profound impact on me. He once held the lute and asked, "Wooden doll, what kind of sound can you make?" "I think that my creation over the years is to explore, excavate, and present a richer appearance of the lute.
Shangguan News: Where did your creative inspiration come from?
Zhao Cong: I am used to using my mind and facial features to feel the scenery first, and then use music to describe the record. For example, when I went to Dunhuang to create "Silk Road Flying Sky", to Changbai Mountain to write "Fuji Tianchang", to Shanghai to write "Leming Oriental" and other works, I was inspired by the scenes that moved me after I arrived in the local area. So my music tends to have a stronger sense of picture. Seeing with your eyes first, then playing with music, and finally recording with a musical score, this is a bit like the state of a handicraft worker.
Engage young people in ways they love
Shangguan News: After you became the director of the Central Chinese Orchestra, this long-established orchestra has many new actions, such as starting to spread folk music through short videos.
Zhao Cong: Yes, this year, our orchestra cooperated with the short video platform to launch a campaign called "Great Chinese Music", which was not popular at first, but through our efforts, 150 million people have participated in half a year. They pass on the Chinese music works they play, or watch our performances online and feel the charm of national music.
Shangguan News: How can we make more young people love folk music?
Zhao Cong: China's national music has a heavy tradition, but in the eyes of some young people, our music is too advanced and far away from ourselves. So we have to lean down and listen to young people, see what they like, and impress them with their true feelings in the way they like. What music is best at is softening people's hearts. Of course, this does not mean that what everyone likes to listen to, we will act, or play a leading role.
Shangguan News: You have been spreading the beauty of Chinese music to the world for many years, how do you think you can use music to tell chinese stories well?
Zhao Cong: I think playing together is a way to promote folk music to the world. This year, our concert "Tiandi Yongle China Festival" co-created with the Palace Museum was originally planned to tour the United States. However, due to the epidemic, we took the online "cloud collaboration" approach, inviting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to record in the United States and then perform with the Central Chinese Orchestra. After this special "Spring Festival Overture" was released on the official website of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, it received more than 100,000 views in less than a day. We also conducted an online co-performance attempt with the Santiago Symphony Orchestra, and together we performed "Chasing the Moon in the Clouds" and pushed it through major online platforms, which was very effective in international dissemination and communication.
Using folk music to communicate with listeners all over the world is a good way to have a conversation, and they find Chinese instruments very interesting. Our folk music is leading in terms of pitch, structure and technology, and is in the family of national music in the world. In the future, our orchestra will inherit the tradition and polish the ancient music while expanding the modern expression of folk music.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Chen Junjun Title Image Source: Provided by the interviewee
Source: Author: Chen Junjun