Artist:
Sun Hui Hung
PROGRAM: MUSIC IN LIFE, MUSIC WITH LIFE
A Lecture and Recital by Dr. Sun Hui, Ph.D. She will be playing the Erhu and discussing the historical context for the instrument’s role in Chinese classical music composition, poetry, and philosophy.
The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument or spike fiddle that is sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin or a Chinese two-stringed fiddle that is about a thousand years older than the violin. It is the most popular of the Chinese huqin family of bowed string instruments. Perhaps no musical instrument is more evocative of China than the erhu even though its origins most likely developed beyond the borders of Chinese culture. It is historically known as the barbarian’s fiddle.
Excellence Prize Winner of the National Erhu Competition in Taiwan, Sun has performed throughout Europe and the Americas in many prestigious music venues and in Taiwan’s National Concert Hall and the Taiwan National Opera. She has performed as a solo artist in collaboration with many major orchestras, including the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and the National Chinese Opera Company. Formerly she taught composition, musicology, and music theory at the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.
Sun currently resides in the Hawai‘ian Islands and has developed a unique style combining the Chinese elements of the erhu with traditional Hawai‘ian music, winning her a Na Hoku Hanohano Award from the Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts. She holds a B.A. in Erhu Performance from the Chinese Culture University, Taiwan, an M.A. in Music Composition and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Ethnomusicology from the Ohio State University. Sample of her music can be found on her Youtube channel: Sun Hui Erhu.
