Renowned soloist to appear in Feb. 15 symphony concert
January 31, 2025
“We are thrilled to celebrate the Chinese New Year with pipa extraordinaire Gao Hong,” said Rebecca Nederhiser, Wartburg Community Symphony conductor. “She will appear in our East Meets West concert a week after her performance with the Minnesota Orchestra. She has many local fans from her performances with the Waverly Chamber Music Series.”
Hong began playing the pipa, a pear-shaped lute, as a young child in China and became a professional musician at age 12. She is a graduate of Beijing’s prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, where she studied under the great pipa master Lin Shicheng. She has performed throughout the world and collaborated with a wide variety of orchestras, jazz musicians, chamber ensembles and performers from many cultures. She teaches at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota; is director of the Chinese Music Ensemble; and is a guest professor at multiple conservatories in China, including the Central Conservatory of Music and China Conservatory.
The Feb. 15 WCS concert program will include two of Hong’s compositions, “Guangxi Impression Concerto” and “Flying Dragon Concerto.” It will also include the “Mother Goose Suite” by French composer Maurice Ravel and “Strum” by contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery, known for her weaving of classical elements with folk music, R&B, spirituals, jazz and hip-hop.
Concert tickets are $20. Youth (18 and under) and Wartburg College students are admitted free. Buy tickets at the door or online at www.wartburg.edu/symphony.
Behind the Music, a preconcert talk with Nederhiser, will begin at 1 p.m. Feb. 15 in Neumann Auditorium. Hong and musician Brisa de Paula, contrabassoonist for “Mother Goose Suite,” will join her.
“We know concertgoers will be fascinated with the unique sounds of the pipa and the contrabassoon, which plays some of the lowest notes of any instrument in the orchestra,” Nederhiser said.
The public is also invited to attend a free Wartburg master class with Hong from 1 to 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, in Liemohn Choral Music Hall in the Bachman Fine Arts Center. Hong will demonstrate the pipa and discuss elements of Chinese culture within her music. Signs directing attendees to the Choral Hall will be posted in the Fine Arts Center lobby.