| There's
not much talk about zhengs these days, but that will
soon change when the FSU School of Music presents "A
Journey of Chinese Zheng Music" Thursday, March
27 at 8 p.m. Haiquiong Deng, a master of gu-zheng music,
will perform a free public recital in the Opperman Concert
Hall at the FSU School of Music. Deng,
an Outstanding Performance Winner in Chinese National
Zheng Competition, is a master's student in the FSU
School of Music, where she is the director of the
FSU Chinese Ensemble. Deng also appeared as a soloist
in the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra's "Holiday
Magic Concert" in December 2002, and on the orchestra's
"Young People's Concert" in March.
After
receiving her undergraduate degree from the Shanghai
Music Conservatory in 1997, Deng performed in Beijing,
Singapore, Japan and the United States. She has also
appeared as a soloist with the Singapore Symphony
Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra and the New
York-based Chinese chamber group "Music from
China."
Deng
performed on the FSU Eleventh Biennial Festival of
New Music this past January, and in September 2002,
she released her debut solo CD.
FSU's
gu-zheng recital will feature the performance of "Equilibrium"
for zheng, violin and marimba by Chihchun Chi-sun
Lee, and will include a performance of Dr. Lee's solo
work.
The
instrument Deng plays, the zheng, is one of the oldest
musical instruments in the world, being an ancestor
of the Japanese koto and the Korean kayagum. The zheng
is a traditional Chinese plucked 21- or 26-string
instrument that features individual moveable bridges
for each string. There really is no Western equivalent
for the Chinese zheng, but the harp is considered
to be one of its closest relatives.
The
zheng, like the harp, is played by picking strings,
but has a very different and versatile sound. The
zheng utilizes bent pitches, vibrato, glissandi and
other characteristic techniques.
The
earliest zheng was written about in documents from
the Qin dynasty, which dates back to more than 2,500
year ago. Hou Jin, a scholar of the Eastern Han Period,
wrote that the gu-zheng's sound touches the heavens
above and the gods and spirits below. The zheng has
been a popular instrument since ancient times and
is considered as one of the main chamber and solo
instruments of Chinese traditional music. Since the
mid-19th century, gu-zheng solo selection has been
growing and evolving into an increasing technical
difficulty.
Other
artists featured playing the zheng at the FSU concert
will be Darren Bartolo and Dana Garrett. Lindsey Reitzel
will be featured on the marimba, Joshua Friedlander
on the violin and Ryan Lewis on the drum.
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