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Min learned to play the pipa from her father, Min Ji-Qian, a professor
and pipa master at Nanjing University. At the age 17, she was selected
by famed Nanjing Traditional Music Orchestra of China and spent over ten
years, 1980-92, as its principal pipa soloist. She also won first prize
at the Jiangsu National Pipa Competition in China and eventually become
considered a first class artist in China.
Min has recorded traditional Chinese music together with many of the
world's leading symphony orchestras and other ensembles and has
performed at a number of international festivals. Since moving to the
United States in 1992, she has been featured as a soloist with the
Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Pacific Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the
New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, the
Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the San
Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Third Angle Ensemble, the
Amiens Chamber Orchestra in France and the Nieuw Ensemble in Holland,
among many others. Min premiered composer Tan Dun's opera "Peony
Pavilion" with director Peter Sellars in 1998. Min also premiered
composer Anthony De Ritis's pipa concerto "Ping Pong" with the Taipei
Chinese Music Orchestra in 2004 and composer Huang Ruo's solo work,
"Written on the Wind," for the Meet the Composer series in 2008. In
addition, she also premiered the works of such noted composers as Chen
Yi, Zhou Long, Bun-Ching Lam and Philip Glass.
In spite of her classical background, Min has also become an established
member of the improvised music community in New York.
Beginning in the late 1990s, Min has recorded and performed with Derek
Bailey (Viper in 1998, Live At Tonic, Volume I in 1999, and Flying
Dragons in 1999), John Zorn (music for the film "The Port of Last
Resort" in 1997, included on Zorn's Filmworks VIII, and music for the
film "Shaolin Ulysses" in 2002, included on Zorn's Filmworks XII), Randy
Weston (Khepera in 1998), Ned Rothenberg (Ghost Stories in 1999-2000),
Leroy Jenkins (The Art of Improvisation in 2004), percussionist Billy
Martin (Socket in 2005) and Wadada Leo Smith (Mbira in 2011).
She has also worked with trombonist George Lewis, saxophonists Jane Ira
Bloom and Ned Rothenberg, guitarists Marc Ribot and Elliott Sharp,
violinists Regina Carter and Jason Kao Hwang, bassist Mark Dresser,
pianists Jon Jang and Daniel Kelly, sound artists Carl Stone and DJ.
Spooky, and sound and visual artist Christian Marclay.
Even contemporary rock is not alien to Min, who made a guest appearance
on singer Björk's album, Volta, in 2007 and was invited to perform as a
special guest with Björk at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music
Hall in New York City following the release of the album.
Min's solo recordings, The Moon Rising (1996), Spring, River, Flower,
Moon, Night (1997) and With Six Composers (1998), as well as her DVD
release, Min Xiao-Fen – Live, of a performance at Roulette in New York
City (2002), have all been well received.
Min has been a featured soloist at the New York Guitar Festival, the
Geneva Music Festival, the Utrecht International Lute Festival, the
Berlin Chinese Music Festival, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Macao
Arts Festival, the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, the
Great Mountains International Music Festival in Korea, the San Francisco
Jazz Festival, the Christian Marclay Festival at the Whitney Museum of
American Art, the Festivalgerie 2010 and 2011, and the Undead Jazzfest
2011.
As a composer, Min received a commission in 2007 for "Return of the
Dragon" from The Kitchen in New York, followed by a performance with her
Asian Trio. She was a featured composer and performed her solo piece
"Blue Pipa" for the American Composers Orchestra's Composer Out Front
series. "Ghost Masks" was commissioned and performed by Min–Wu–Xu at the
Glatt & Verkehrt Festival in Krems, Austria in 2008, and her solo "Dim
Sum" was premieredat Interpretations in 2010 in New York.
Min regularly performs with her own groups:
- Blue Pipa Trio (with bassist Dean Johnson and guitarist Steve
Salerno), which performs Min's compositions and arrangements combining
Chinese folk music, regional operas and Taoist music with American jazz
standards and bluegrass, as well as other influences; Min Xiao-Fen's
Traditional.
- Chinese Women String Ensemble, which combines Min's pipa with players
of other Chinese instruments (erhu, yangqin and zheng), in a repertoire
of traditional Chinese music and beloved folksongs.
- The Asian Trio (with Korean cellist Okkyung Lee and Japanese
percussionist Satoshi Takeishi), featuring compositions combining Asian
influences with improvised music.
- Min–Wu–Xu, which brings together three pioneers of the Chinese
avant-garde combining both instrumental and vocal music. Performance
highlights include the opening of Chinese Cultural Week at Millennium
Park in Chicago, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, Flushing Town Hall, Richmond Centerstage, the
Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University, Texas A&M University and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Min has taught many master classes and has been an artist in residence
at schools and universities across the United States and Europe,
including the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Boston
Conservatory, The New School, Columbia University, Haystack Mountain
School of Arts & Crafts, James Madison University, Wellesley College,
University of California, San Diego, Pittsburgh’s CAPA High School,
Brooklyn Friends School and Amsterdam Conservatory.
She is the founder of Blue Pipa Inc. (www.bluepipa.org) and currently
lives in Forest Hills, Queens.
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