April 29, 2025 | 9:15 am – 11:15 am
The C.V. Starr East Asian Library, UC Berkeley
The New York Qin Society will present:
Elegant Resonance of the Ming — A Concert of Guqin Music and Literati Thought from the Ming Dynasty
「風雅明韻」— 明代古琴音樂與文人思想展演
Brief Introduction of Presenters and Performers
The New York Qin Society was founded in 2000 by Jung-ping Yuan and a group of qin players and sinologists to explore and enjoy the music and culture of the qin. Its members have enjoyed regular meetings at least every two months since then. For more information, please visit https://newyorkqin.com/
2025 is a significant year for the qin tradition — one that has two oldest surviving Ming dynasty handbooks, the Shenqi Mipu (神奇秘谱) of 1425 and the Xilutang Qintong (西麓堂琴统) of 1525; celebrating 600 and 500 years since their publication, respectively. As such, the New York Qin Society is dedicating this event in part, to commemorate this momentous year. 2025 serves as a poignant reminder of not only the legacy of the qin’s deep roots but also the Society’s role in helping to maintain and transmit this ancient tradition for future generations.
1. Dongting Qiu Si (洞庭秋思); “Autumn Thoughts at Lake Dongting” – Alan Yip will perform Zha Fuxi ‘s famed transmission of the piece. Learned from two of Zha’s highly-esteemed students, Masters Gong Yi and Wu Ziying; with his own transcription (2008) mentored by Master Gong of the earliest version of the Ming score from Xilutang Qintong.
2. Reconstructing melodies from Ming dynasty tablature, a methodology John Thompson, having reconstructed over 300 melodies mostly from Ming dynasty sources over the past 50 years, will play several of his reconstructions and discuss this work, which begins with a search for melodic structures and only then looks for “inner significance” (趣) of what they are expressing. Talk and demonstration by John Thompson.
3. Interpreting Xilutang Qingtong (《西麓堂琴統》) – Unveiling Wang Zhi’s Vision Through Tang Gao’s Preface. Talk by Peiyou Chang.
4. Cai Zhen You (采真游); “Exploring the True” – Peiyou Chang will perform the score from Xilutang Qintong.
5. Chun Si (春思); “Spring Feelings” – Alan Yip will perform Master Chen Changlin’s 1998 transcription of the Ming score from Xilutang Qintong.
6. Guiqu Laici (歸去來辭); “Come Away Home” – Transmission of Lui Puiyuen, performed by Mark Jonhson.
7. Oulu Wangji (鷗鷺望機); “Forgetting Seagulls “- a duet with erhu, transmission of Wu Zhaoji’s from the Wumen Qinpu, Peiyou Chang on qin, Alan Yip on erhu.
Peiyou Chang (張培幼) was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She began music at age three with the piano and took up the guzheng at eight. After a pause during college, she rediscovered her passion at thirty through the guqin, which has since become her lifelong focus. Since 2000, she has studied guqin and calligraphy under Mr. Yuan Jung-Ping (袁中平) of Taipei, following the musical lineage of Master Wu Zhao-Ji (吳兆基 1908–1997) of Suzhou and the calligraphic tradition of Li Ruiqing (李瑞清), Hu Xiaoshi (胡小石), and Leon Long-Yien Chang (張隆延). Peiyou’s contemplative and scholarly approach is rooted in tradition yet open to exploration. She has performed and lectured in the U.S., U.K., Taiwan, and China at institutions including Yale, Eastman School of Music, SOAS University of London, SUNY Binghamton, and the China Institute in NYC. A former President of the New York Qin Society (2021–2024), she is currently working on her first book, a philological study of a Ming dynasty guqin handbook. Visit: www.peiyouqin.com
Mark Johnson (張叔夜) is a hand tool woodworker and former technology executive. He first encountered the guqin in 2016 at a store in Southern California. Despite his lack of musical background, he was immediately captivated. Within two weeks, he had researched and purchased his first guqin and found a teacher: Master Lui Puiyuen (吕培原). Four years of diligent practice later, Master Lui encouraged him to begin teaching the instrument to others. He has been performing and sharing his knowledge of the qin ever since.
John Thompson(唐世璋), with the largest recorded repertoire for the guqin silk-string zither, is certainly one of the most listened to players today: since May 2007 his website has averaged thousands of hits a day, many of them from people listening through China’s music downloading websites to his recordings, unaware that he is not a Chinese master playing their most ancient surviving music. In all, he has reconstructed and recorded over 300 melodies from 15th through 17th century guqin tablature, and his website complements each melody with extensive musicological, historical, and philosophical commentary. As a result, he is the best-known musician giving historically informed performances of early guqin music. After a college degree in Western musicology (early music) and graduate studies in ethnomusicology, Thompson began in 1974 to study the modern guqin tradition from Sun Yü-Ch’in in Taiwan. Moving to Hong Kong in 1976 to consult with Tong Kin-Woon, he turned his focus to early repertoire, gradually gaining a reputation for the fidelity, fluency and feeling of his performances. In 1992 the National Union of Chinese Musicians invited him to Beijing as the focus of a seminar on reconstructing music from the earliest surviving guqin handbook, Shen Qi Mi Pu (1425 CE). While based in Hong Kong as artistic consultant to the Festival of Asian Arts Thompson performed throughout East Asia, and published seven CDs of his musical reconstructions as well as four books of music transcriptions. Since 2001, when he moved to New York (and including 2009-2013, when he was based in Mumbai and Singapore), he has continued to perform, teach, research and lecture on the guqin, creating new music as well. In 2019 veteran Hong Kong film director Lau Shing-hon completed a two-hour documentary about this work. John served as president of the New York Qin Society from 2012 to 2021.
Alan Yip (葉沛霖) was born in Los Angeles, California where he studied erhu (二胡) under acclaimed maestro and honored National First-Class Performer (國家一級演員) in China, He Wangbao (何王保). With more than two decades of erhu performance experience, he has actively delved into many regional and contemporary styles of playing, ranging from solo instrumental, orchestral, ensemble, to traditional Cantonese music and Cantonese opera. Intrigued by its sound and history, Alan began his studies of guqin as a disciple of famed pipa and guqin virtuoso, Lui Puiyuen (吕培 原). Eager to broaden his technique and aesthetics on guqin, he has since studied under leading masters as Gong Yi (龔一), Wu Ziying (吴自英), Chen Changlin (陳長 林), and Dai Xiaolian (戴曉蓮). He has been invited to numerous concerts in such countries as USA, China, and Malaysia, and is an active promoter of Chinese music in the United States and abroad. Besides Chinese classical music, he has studied Chinese court-style painting under the tutelage of Aisin-Gioro⋅Puxian (愛新覺羅⋅溥仙) – cousin of the last emperor of China, Puyi (溥儀). Alan holds a Master’s degree in Horticulture and Agronomy from the University of California, Davis. Alan serves as president of the New York Qin Society and is musical instruments consultant to @fineguqins. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit https://alanyip.art for more information.
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