The Ciompi Quartet

Featuring Min Xiao-fen, pipa and voice

When cultures mix, music is usually where they find common ground. 1930’s Shanghai put American jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton in contact with Chinese songwriter Li Jin-Hui, resulting in music that blended American jazz with Chinese popular song. The Ciompi Quartet and pipa virtuoso Xiao-Fen Min have commissioned two new works for pipa and string quartet by composers Alan Chan and Andrew Waggoner that explore the sonic possibilities of these disparate musical worlds. Chan’s work re-imagines 30s era songs through a jazz lens, while Waggoner creates a dramatic dialogue between the Min’s virtuoso Pipa and the string quartet. The program includes a quartet by Jewish refugee Wolfgang Fraenkel, who escaped to Shanghai in 1939 and became an influential teacher and musical figure in the life of the city.

• Andrew Waggoner: Forgotten Stories for String Quartet and Pipa (2024) WORLD PREMIERE – Ciompi Commission
• Alan Chan: “Catch Me at the Canidrome” for String Quartet and Pipa (2024) WORLD PREMIERE – Ciompi Commission
• Wolfgang Fraenkel: Music for String Quartet (1949)

This concert is FREE

Watch The Live Stream Here