Immerse yourself in a unique sound world – ancient and contemporary Chinese percussion.
Beibei Wang’s imaginative world of percussion has been endless during lockdown. We are thrilled she is sharing this with us.
“Hello, my name is Beibei, I am a percussionist based in London and really excited to be an associate artist of Thurrock Festival. Thurrock is on the gateway to the Thames which means it’s at the UK’s gateway to the world. It links up to the ancient silk road that stretches from Europe all the way to China.
My personal experiences reflect these connections. I grew up in China, and began my musical journey studying traditional Chinese music, 10 years ago I moved to London to explore music and cultures from all over the world. The people I’ve met and the artists I’ve played with have been hugely influential in how I understand and approach music.
For the Thurrock Festival 2020, I’m sharing a number of video pieces with the title “past and present”. These are things I have been creating in response to these uncertain times of lockdown.
Although our lives have been limited in so many ways, as an artist, I’ve realised that limitations can in fact cultivate creativity! For example, in one piece I’m going to show you, when I couldn’t physically play with other musicians, I turned myself into a traditional Chinese percussion ensemble through video editing; Also, I’ve been spending time thinking about our environment, so I decided to recycle the many, many parcels my house has received into music.
In addition to these, I’d like to share a few past concerts of music which I have played all over the world and have served as a sort of compass for me.
Thank you for watching, see you all at Thurrock festival, 19th September!”
Beibei Wang is a international soloist with both Chinese and British music education backgrounds having received double masters degrees from both the Royal Academy of Music, London and the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing. She has an innate ability in a variety of styles that includes traditional, classical, conceptual and visual music performance. Her repertoire covers a diverse range of classical, contemporary, jazz, and Chinese traditional music. She sticks with her conviction that she challenges herself in every concert refusing to repeat the same concept. Her talented musical sensibility of Chinese heritage and Western avant-garde technical skills are of a high level, but what really sets her apart is her passion for the advancement of her art.
Beibei Wang is Thurrock Festival’s Associate Artist | Music.
Click here to discover more about Beibei.
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