Hello Gold Mountain is a requiem for lost possibilities of the Jewish community of Shanghai.
The work, an original composition by Wu Fei, will feature chatterbird along with Wu Fei, guzheng, and Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, oud (Silk Road Ensemble).
The piece is inspired by stories of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai from Europe during World War II. From 1933 until the end of the war, Shanghai was often the only port at which Jewish refugees fleeing Europe could disembark without a visa. In the early 1940s, more than 20,000 Jews lived in Shanghai and contributed to its cultural and civic life.
But the Jews could not stay. As China’s bloody civil war came to a close in 1949, most fled. Many emigrated to the US, often arriving at the port of San Francisco, or Old Gold Mountain 旧金山.
What musical possibilities were lost because the times did not allow neighbors from these different cultures to grow old together, sharing songs and stories? Similarly, what artistic creations will be lost if Europe and the United States close the door to refugees and migrants from lands in chaos?
Image by Annapaola Martin base on photo by Brett Warren
Wu Fei
Wu Fei is a Beijing-born classically trained composer, singer, and guzheng performer.
Wu Fei began playing the guzheng at the age of five. At age of 15, she began to study composition at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and later at Mills College in Oakland, California where she received a Masters in Music Composition.
Wu Fei's work is a fusion of traditional Chinese and Western music, melding contemporary and classical elements with improvisation. This unique blend has led her to perform widely across the United States, Europe, and Asia, at venues including the Forbidden City Beijing, New York’s MoMA, Paris’ Quai Branly Museum, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C., the Chautauqua Institute, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam.
Paul Salerni, conductor for the Lehigh University Philharmonic, called Wu Fei a “triple threat musician” for her classical rigor, virtuous playing and singing, and compositional innovation. Rolling Stone magazine said “Cell phones got alerts that a performance by Chinese guzheng player Wu Fei was at capacity,” at the Big Ears Festival.
She composes for choir, string quartet, chamber ensemble, Balinese gamelan and orchestra. Her many commissions have ranged from a composition for Percussions Claviers de Lyon,which premiered in the Forbidden City, to live performances in Paris and Tokyo for luxury brand Hermès.
Her chamber orchestral work “Hello Gold Mountain,” inspired by the stories of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai from Europe in World War II, earned a MAP Fund award in 2018. Fei orchestrated the piece into full symphony in 2022. Since then, she has performed the work with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Bellingham Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony.
Wu Fei has released several albums, including "A Distant Youth," "Yuan," “Pluck” with classical guitarist Gyan Riley, and “Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn”. Her discography has received critical acclaim from various music publications and has earned her a reputation as one of the world’s most innovative musical talents.
She has collaborated with artists from different disciplines and genres, including Emmy-winning directors Pierce Freelon and Jon Halperin, Grammy-winning musicians Béla Fleck, Jeff Coffin, Balinese gamelan master Nyoman Windha, and avant-garde composers John Zorn and Fred Frith.
As an educator, Wu Fei has given concerts and workshops at Princeton University, University of Chicago, Yale University, UNC Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt University, China Conservatory of Music, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC Irvine, the Norwegian Academy of Music and the University of Los Andes of Colombia.
Wu Fei has been recognized with awards including the MAP Fund award in 2018, Best World Music Artist 2008 by Westword, Composer Fellowship the Sally & Don Lucas Artist Residency by Montalvo Arts Center in 2011, DVD “Shan Qi” nominated for Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (Award of the German Record Critique), 2009. Wu Fei with chatterbird ensemble was the winner of Best Genre-Defying Classical Performance by Nashville Scene 2017's Writer's Choice.
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