The figure of the well-known musician Wu Wei, who was born in China and trained in Shanghai and Berlin, is inextricably linked to the sheng, a thousand-year-old Chinese instrument that is basically a small mouth organ made of bamboo pipes embedded in a metal structure. Wu Wei, however, goes far beyond the traditional boundaries of the instrument, taking it from its origins – some three thousand years ago – to the 21st century.
The radiant and transparent timbre of the musician and the infinite possibilities offered by the sheng in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm and polyphony have led Wu Wei to collaborate with many artists and ensembles in traditional, chamber or orchestral contexts, to improvise as a soloist or with jazz big bands, and to experiment with electronic and minimal music.
Regularly invited by major international festivals, in the last decade he has performed with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, São Paulo Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic.
