Yunhe Liang 梁雲河 on Erhu 二胡. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino is hosting a series of traditional Chinese music performances in its Chinese Garden through July.
The free concerts run from 1 to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays through July 23. Performances are included with general admission to the gardens.
Solo musicians will perform unamplified melodies on classical Chinese instruments. The series features the erhu, pipa and dizi played in the Garden of Flowing Fragrance.
Three experienced performers will rotate throughout the series. Rene Ren-jian Wu plays the erhu, a two-stringed spike fiddle held vertically. Wu graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and served as principal erhu player for the Beijing Dance Academy Orchestra.
Since moving to the U.S. in 1980, Wu has performed at museums, universities, community festivals and the Hollywood Bowl.
Meiye Ma performs on the pipa, a four-stringed plucked instrument with a pear-shaped body. Born in Shanghai, Ma began studying the instrument at age 10. She became principal soloist for the Shanghai Film Orchestra after studying at the Shanghai Conservatory.
Teh-Shu Yang plays the dizi, a horizontal bamboo flute. Yang discovered his love for the instrument as a teenager in Taiwan after hearing a neighbor play. He has performed the dizi for more than 50 years.
The erhu likely came to China from Central Asia around the 10th century. The pipa appeared in China during the Han dynasty and was particularly popular during the Tang dynasty. The dizi dates to the Neolithic period and appears in legends about the Yellow Emperor.
The performances may be canceled due to rain or excessive heat. The Justin Vajna Memorial Fund for Educational Programs in the Chinese Garden supports the series.
The Huntington’s Center for East Asian Garden Studies sponsors the event. The center promotes scholarship on garden-making traditions in China, Japan and Korea.
The remaining performances are scheduled for July 2, 9, 16 and 23.
For more information, visit https://www.huntington.org/
