| Ling Ling
YU (Pipa)
Pipa Music: 1, 2, 3 Lingling Yu on YouTube Lingling Yu on Myspace : http://www.myspace.com/lingling.yu Lingling Yu on Vimeo : http://www.vimeo.com/7591482 Below : Presse, Support New project with Pro Helvetia. Lingling YU is a virtuose pipa player. She was born in the city of Hangzhou, in the south-east of China. At the age of eight, she began to study the violin, the erhu, and later concentrated on the pipa. By the age of fourteen, she was awarded the first prize at the entrance examination for the Central Conservatory of music in Beijing. Considered as a prodigy, a documentary movie was published on her exceptional musical abilities, (Chun Lei, "Little Genius"), as well as various other TV and press reports. Lingling YU obtained the bachelor's degree in Arts at the China Conservatory of music in Beijing. In 1985, she was appointed as lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where she taught until 1997. In 1988 she won the national competition of Chinese traditional music in Beijing. Together with her master Dehai LIU, the most important pipa player, professor and composer, she travelled throughout China with her favorite instrument, teaching and giving public performances. Dehai LIU exerted a great influence on Lingling YU’s musical evolution. She studied with other famous pipa professor such as Jieli LUO, Fandi WANG and Weixi SUN who gave Lingling YU the opportunity to broaden her knowledge, enrich her repertoire with a great variety of styles, and allowed her to find her own way, giving free range to her personality. Her performing style, combined with an exceptional mastery of all the techniques of the instrument, is powerful, clear, warm and creative, characterized by brightness and delicacy, an encounter between emotion and serenity, blending the two principles of the Chinese philosophy : the yin and the yang. To explore the links between western and eastern music, she settled in Switzerland in 1998. 1998 - 1999, she studied orchestration with Jean Balissat at the Conservatory of music of Lausanne.
In 1999 she published her first CD of traditional music for pipa solo,
"Tian E" in Switzerland. Amori 2000 - 2006 she studied harmony with Pierre Studer, contrepoint with Kurt Sturzenegger, orchestration with Xavier Dayer, improvisation with David Dolan and Marco Ferrari and took part to the composition course of Eric Gaudibert and Nicolas Bolens at the high school of music in Geneva. She gives concerts as soloist or in collaboration with different Ensembles of chinese traditional and classical music, as well as contemporary music and improvisations in Switzerland, Europe, Asia, Africa. The main Ensembles are: Ensemble Dialog, Ragazze Kwartet, Duo YuRio, duo YuZeng; Duo YuGuo, Yu-Nanz duo; YET Trio , Dragon Ensemble, Rencontre Trio, Yu-Demenga-Molinari Trio, Ensemble Antipode, Ensemble Rythmes Meeting, St-Moritz Trio, Percussions Claviers de Lyon; Shanghai philharmonic Orchestra, Zurich chamber orchestra, Orchester de l’ile de Réunion, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra. She collaborates with GRAME - Centre national de création musicale in France in 2009 - 2011. Her music has been broadcast on radio stations, the principal (Swiss radio – DRS and Espace 2 ; Radio France – France Musique and France Culture; German Radio - Bayerischer Rundfunk) and on the Swiss, the French, the Tunis and the Maroccan TV. Radio emissions have been dedicated to her in China, Switzerland, France, Germany, USA and Canada … 2008, “ Symphonic concert of Swiss and Chinese composers”. Award-winning project from Pro Helvetia. She is member of the Association of Swiss Musicians.
Experience of contemporary musique: She lives in Geneva. |
Some press reviews on the music of Lingling YU :
"...die elegant-energische Yu Lingling...", ihre Musik mit dem Dragon Ensemble " (...) wie das immer vertrauter und inspirierter
zusammen musizierende Ensemble - die Stücke spielt, sprechen diese ganz unmittelbar begeisternd zum Hörer: Mit virtuosen Eskapaden und intimen,
innerlichen Schattenklängen, ..."
Reinhard Schulz, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany, 12.01.2005
"L'interprétation de LinglingYu nous délivre encore un autre message: une harmonisation du temps et de l'espace.
... Encore une fois, elle réussit à nous plonger, sans même que nous nous en rendions compte, dans un univers délicat et fascinant,
..."
Romanus, Magazine Est-Ouest, Paris, 20.02.2004
"...Lingling YU libère les tons de l’instrument... [qui] rend un son étonnement plein et
d’un variété extrême... on saisi immédiatement le potentiel du pipa comme instrument dramatique
pour l’opéra Chinois. ... les techniques du jeu que Lingling YU maîtrise parfaitement..."
Christina Omlin, Solothurner Zeitung, Switzerland, 25.01.2002
(original)
"In den traditionellen Stücken, die LinglingYu im ersten Teil des Konzerts spielte, kam der Reichtum an Klängen voll zur Geltung,
sei das in den monodischen Stücken, wodie Melodie sich mit allerlei Zittern, Glissandi und Flageolettspiel kunstvoll ornamentiert präsentierte.
Hier schimmerte die vorliebe der östlichen Musik für den einzelnen Ton und dessen Farbschattierungen deutlich durch Oder sei es in den Stücken,
die eine kämpferisch erregte Simmung verbreiten, Akkorde werden hier wild vibrierend angeschlagen;
das Potenzial der Pipa als dramatisches instrument für die chinesische Oper offenbart sich einem unmittelbar.
Erstaunlich auch die Spieltechniken, die LinglingYu perfekt beherscht: gezupft wird nicht nur mit der rechten, sondern auch mit der linken Hand,
und durch das einfache Drücken und Loslassen der Saiten werden weitere Abstufungen von Artikulationen hörbar. Interessant zu hören ist,
dass Geräuberwischen ganz selbstverständlich Teil der traditionellen Musik sind.
Auch tänzerische Anklänge finden sich in dieser Musik bis hin zu Verwandtschaften mit Flamenco."
Christina Omlin, Solothurner Zeitung, Switzerland, 25.01.2002
"Chaque fluctuation du corps semble prendre part à l'événement. Une gestuelle féline... L'instrument est
utilisé dans son spectre le plus large. LinglingYu manifeste une virtuosité qui n'excut aucun sentiment.
Elle incarne une tradition que l'on croyait cérébrale et qui se révèle définitivement sensuelle".
Arnaud Robert, Le Temps, Switzerland, 11.12.1999