In case you need a brief introduction to the guzheng: It’s a stringed acoustic instrument in the zither family whose history goes back thousands of years in China. It lies flat and looks a little like an oversized pedal steel while sounding a bit like a harp’s cousin. If that piques your interest, it’s hard to imagine someone more excited (and qualified) to open up its world to you than Wu Fei, a native of Beijing who moved her family to Nashville just more than a decade ago. She’s been studying music since she was very little, and among other things has become an absolute master of classical guzheng repertoire and technique — as well as improvisation, a practice she began to learn in grad school as a way to find her voice as a composer. Her new solo program Moon Hunter incorporates guzheng and touches on Chinese opera and folklore, and it expands on an improv piece she recorded in 2022 for Wu Fei’s Music Daily, the ongoing newsletter she started during COVID lockdown. Fei’s performance Sunday at 3 p.m. is the culmination of a Lunar New Year celebration that will begin at 2 p.m. in Ingram Hall’s lobby and feature cultural exhibits and other activities (including a drumming performance from the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville).
2 p.m. at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music’s Ingram Hall
Children’s Way and 24th Avenue South
