It’s almost dark out, and Professor Li Chi drifts around a
packed Gamelan Room, instructing restless students in the uses of
the oddly shaped instruments they fumble with. Many struggle to
even play a scale on what look like the Eastern cousins of more
familiar banjos, fiddles and flutes. One nervously plucks away at
what is essentially a lap harp. Li remains patient, knowing many of
them are first-timers; in nine weeks, she plans to transform the
bunch into a full-fledged amateur Chinese orchestra.
After class, she gathers one or two dozen veterans together for
additional practice. Some of them have known her for years. The
most experienced of her students will be performing April 23 as the
Music of China Ensemble for the Hammer Museum’s Spring
Festival of World Music series. And probably no one’s more
enthusiastic about it than Li.
Li’s performing specialty is the erhu, a Chinese
two-string bowed fiddle. Upon graduating from the Conservatory of
Chinese Music more than two decades ago, she served as erhu soloist
for the National Traditional Orchestra of China-““ the most
renowned of all Chinese instrument orchestras.
Her musical career has taken her from presidential concerts in
Beijing to Madison Square Garden. But among even this select group
of her students, few are aware of her intimidating list of
accomplishments.
“She’s almost motherly,” said third-year
computer science student Addison Luh, who has been practicing the
erhu under Li for the following two years. “She’s so
friendly and easy to talk to, and really tries to help everybody
““ not only with how they play the music, but also how to
enjoy it and make the ensemble work.”
Li seems to relish bringing this music to eager young students,
many of them Chinese Americans trying to get in touch with their
roots. She fondly recounted an e-mail that she received last
quarter from a former student confirming this idea.
“He was in Hong Kong and couldn’t wait to go back to
show his grandfather how he learned to play the erhu,” she
said. “Many of these American-born Chinese want to be closer
to their ancestors.”
The ensemble shares Li’s vision ““ and the spirit of
the festival ““ of using music as a vehicle to communicate
culture to a wider audience.
“Everybody knows about China, but people know more about
the food than the music,” said Li. “So we’re
trying to present the music as best we can. That’s why I
picked performances that cover a wide range of time, region and
style. … We’ve been exposed to so much Chinese culture it
seems a waste to not continue to either develop our interest or
look more into it."
The performance will feature various traditional dances in
addition to a percussion piece titled “Ox Fighting With
Tiger,” another centered around the 20-plus string zheng
instrument, and a Quin opera singer, the oldest of the more than
300 different kinds of Chinese opera.
The Hammer Museum affair promises to deliver tremendous
diversity within the scope of just one performance, in a series
meant to be as diverse as possible.
Meanwhile, the small, frail-looking Li soldiers on through the
night, tirelessly guiding her ensemble in smoothing out any
lingering bumps. After all, compressing a few thousand years of a
culture’s musical history into one afternoon takes quite a
bit of work.
“All cultures’ music is beautiful and has its own
special beauty,” explained Li. “The main difference
with China is its size and age, and so the great variety in its
music.”