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Ma Xiaohui, Premier International Chinese Erhu Virtuoso
　　
(The Erhu, pronounced “are-who,” is like a two-stringed Chinese violin)

　　 One of China’s few first-class traditional artists, embracing a
two-decade international career, renowned Shanghai Erhu musician and composer Ma Xiaohui is “an artist who speaks with the world through Erhu.” Raised in an academic family, she graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Ma Xiaohui is artistic advisor to the Shanghai Grand Theater, a member of the United Nations Oriental Art Center, and served as “Love Ambassador” for the World Special Olympics held in Shanghai (October 2007) – where she tutored young Olympian Qiao Meili on Erhu for the Flame Lighting opening ceremony. Past concertmaster to the Shanghai Traditional Orchestra, and an adjunct professor at Southwest Jiaotong University, she also serves as adviser to the Hong Kong Youth Music Association. Additionally, Ma Xiaohui serves as Education Advisor to the Shanghai Grand Theatre Education Center. Awarded the First Prize for the National Guangdong Music Competition, the Baosteel Classic Arts Award, and First Prize for the first Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, she has also appeared as the first Chinese traditional performer in numerous major world festivals. Ma Xiaohui is perhaps most readily recognized for her duet with famed cellist Yo- Yo Ma on the Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

　　On June 18, 2008, Ma Xiaohui gave her first Carnegie Hall Erhu recital “Erhu Holding Hands with the World,” in the Weill Recital Hall. Her music was rapturously received by the New York audience, which gave her a standing ovation. Many of the audience, at the “meet the artist session” which followed the recital, spoke of the powerful emotional effect her music had on them, which in some instances moved them to tears. The audience also appreciated that the proceeds of the concert went to benefit the victims of the China Sichuan earthquake, and were pleased that she had arranged some pieces especially to demonstrate her support and love for the people of Sichuan. Per the Qiao Bao Daily, Ma Xiaohui “owns the hearts” of her New York City audience.

　　It is of note that Tan Dun, the famed Chinese composer, sent a letter of support that he asked to be read during her Carnegie Weill Hall performance in lieu of his attendance. In the letter, Mr. Dun stated: “Ms. Ma, you are truly one of the most talented young musicians of our time and you have made it your challenge to transform the Erhu from being an instrument only associated with traditionally Chinese music to one recognized on the great stages of the world as a bona fide classical instrument.” He added: “Your talent and virtuosity was evident to me . . . and your ability to caress the most exquisite sounds from the Erhu is demonstration of a rare talent.”.

　　Master Zuo Huang Chen, famous Conductor and Director of China’s National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, also recognizes Ma Xiaohui as an “outstanding traditional artist.” He stated: “The more I get to know her, the more I appreciate all she is doing to open new horizons for her instrument. She melts the hearts of audiences in China and around the world, and everyone seems to love both her and her music. She has a strong artist’s spirit, and I have a great deal of respect for the amazing international success that she has achieved.”

　　Proud of its national treasure, the Chinese government in 2000 presented Ma Xiaohui as Cultural Ambassador in Shanghai’s successful bid for the 2010 World Exposition. This Shanghai artist—often called the Queen of Erhu—promoted the Expo with concerts in France and Belgium (2007), performed at Premier Wen’s Shanghai Summit for African Heads of State (2006), led The Female Trio for the 2001 APEC meeting in Shanghai, and performed at Bravo China in Athens, Greece (2002).

　　The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, recently praised Ma Xiaohui as a “true Chinese Ambassador for the 21st century, reflecting a good image for China as an intelligent, elegant woman and musician.” They added, “She is truly the right musician for this, based on a strong classical Chinese tradition, but also open to other world musical traditions. She touches and influences people’s hearts and souls with her strong new spirit.” Director of the Shanghai Xiaohui Art Center, over the last decade Ma Xiaohui has toured extensively across Europe, Asia and the Americas, appearing during the last twenty years with noted orchestras in more than five hundred concerts, recitals and lectures. European appearances have included the Berlin Chamber Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the French National Symphony Orchestra, Switzerland’s Symphony Orchestra St. Gallen, and a recent performance for China’s President Hu Jintao accompanied by the King and Queen of Sweden. In the United States her programs included the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Millennium Stage in Washington, DC, during 1999 and 2006. In fact, the Kennedy Center declared her 1999 performance among the Center’s finest Ten Concerts. She also has performed with conductor David Stern at Colorado’s Crested Butte Music Festival, at the United Nations, for New York Philharmonic Master-conductor Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Theater (Chateauville Foundation), and at an internationally televised program at the famed Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California. In Asia, Ma Xiaohui has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of China, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Singapore National Symphony, and at Classical Concert Hall in Seoul, Korea, among others. Since 1995, she has worked closely with master Zuo Huang Chen of the National Grand Theater. A respected music scholar, she has also lectured at the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, Pomona College, Fudan University, and Jiaotong University. In the past year, California’s Azusa Pacific University hosted her as World Music Scholar-in-Residence, and she performed at Scripps College for an innovative course titled “Shanghai Rising.”

　　Equally at home on television or stage, her most recent engagements include Switzerland’s Heilbronn Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuania State Symphony Orchestra (as their first Chinese performer), White House Historical Association concerts at Mount Vernon in Washington, DC, (in a musical tribute to former presidents), the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, television music specials on Chinese CCTV, and recitals of her multi-faceted Erhu dialogue with cello, piano, percussion, ensemble and symphony – “Erhu Holding Hands with the World” – held in Shanghai and Neustadt–Schloss Landestrost, Germany. Other recent global appearances have taken Ma Xiaohui to Zurich, Tokyo, Kyoto, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Malaysia and Singapore.

　　As a result of her recent appearances in Washington, America’s National Public Radio (NPR) featured Ma Xiaohui as the first Chinese international traditional artist in their Peabody Award-winning national program “All Things Considered.” The Sing Tao Daily newspaper reported that Ma Xiaohui was an “earthquake that shot through the hearts of Washington, DC, with her colorful style and presence.” They concluded that Ma Xiaohui is “truly a daughter of the world, and makes audiences crazy for Erhu.” The World General echoed those sentiments: “Ma Xiaohui brings a strong bridge from Chinese culture to the world.”

　　Critics have long been enthusiastic in praising China’s rare flower in the garden of traditional music. Munich Times said that with her “ nimble virtuosity . . . we fully believed again in music as a universal language.” The Oxford Times agreed that “she drew a kind of alto human voice bereft of words,” and her playing “sounds so culture-free and universal, that Ma Xiaohui’s gift, and vibrant musicality, shone out on us like light.”

　　Ma Xiaohui has redefined Erhu, elevating it to a fine classical standing, stretching her ancient, versatile instrument’s boundaries with new tone colors and techniques. The German Saale newspaper recognized this: ”Miss Ma is a brilliant interpreter, mastering virtually all possibilities of her tender instrument and playing her truly personal interpretation with enormous humor and refinement . . . in which she could show, once again, her breathtaking virtuosity.” Shanghai Grand Theatre Magazine noted: she “demonstrates her continuous creativity and truthfulness to her own personality, touching through her music the entire audience.” The South Bend Tribune added: “Ma Xiaohui’s Erhu is able to evoke not just traditional Chinese musical themes—the twitter of bird song or the distinct cadence and intonation of Chinese speech—but the emotional variety of Western music as well. She strives to span cultural divides and emphasizes the universality of music.”

　　Featured in 20 CD’s and appearing in over 40 recordings, Ma Xiaohui’s recent DVD set is her most ambitious, capturing her world tours in a photo-album accompanied by a CD of music selections, with a DVD of her life and concert appearances, including high-quality MTV videos of her own major compositions: “The Story of Two Strings” (premiered in Europe at the Beethoven House in Bonn) and “The Spirit of My Erhu.”

　　Among Ma Xiaohui’s significant number of adaptations of Western and Chinese classical compositions are Bartók’s “Romanian Folk Dances,” Bach’s “Inventions II” and Sonatas, Kreisler’s “Liebesleid” and the Ping Tan Opera “Call Mother in the Nunnery.”

　　Current projects include the anticipated release of the film “Daughter of the Mountain,” in which Ma Xiaohui plays an actress-musician in a role mirroring her own life’s struggle from child prodigy to a global music sensation. The coming year’s plans also include the release of her new photo-biography Erhu Holding Hands With the World, as well as a biographical film produced by ECF International.

　　In July of 2008, Ma Xiaohui introduced her Erhu music to the people of South Africa with two lecture-performances in Cape Town. Most of the audience had never heard Erhu before and were immensely impressed with the powerful emotive sound of the instrument. It would not be an overstatement to say that theyfell in love with the sound of the Erhu. During her stay in Cape Town she was invited to record a solo studioperformance as well as a Christmas CD with famed South African folk singer Randall Wicomb. She also did a radio interview on the popular RSG radio station and had the opportunity to introduce her music to a wide audience.

　　Recently, Ma Xiaohui was selected to become the new Dior “famous artist image” in China. This is the first time in the history of Dior that a Chinese artist virtuoso was chosen to be their cosmetics face for China. Dior posters portray a beautiful image of Ma Xiaohui with her darling Erhu, reflecting something of her charm andunique musical ability.

　　 Endlessly striving to serve, committed to excellence, Ma Xiaohui constantly presses musical horizons, exploring new possibilities, pursuing her personal goal of bringing people closer together through music, one heart at a time. Ma Xiaohui is an undisputed Ambassador of Culture, powerfully influencing people the world over – Truly the Queen of Erhu.

　　 Xiaohui said: “Sometimes, I feel like I am an exotic and colorful little bird that enjoys life and flies through the skies of the beautiful world of music. My hope is to share beauty, warmth, love, peace, and Chinese culture through this sensitive and powerful spiritual instrument—the Erhu. I offer my songs to accompany the songs of birds singing with joy in the morning sunshine. I hope to share my melodies with everyone in every corner of the world. This is my dream.......” .