Entries are open for the Changsha International Guitar Competition. First prize is US$10,000 plus a concert tour in China in 2020. There's also a special prize of €500 from the The Victoria and Joaquín Rodrigo Foundation for the best performance of a piece by Rodrigo during the competition. More info at www.guitar.org.cn
Spanish Rhapsody - a recital of Spanish music accompanied by a wide variety of Spanish dance. See Xuefei & Maria Vega at the Kino Theatre, Hastings on Jul 4; Cheltenham Festival on Jul 6th; Chipping Norton Theatre on Sep 5th; Madrid on Sep 13th. Full details on the schedule page.
The artist line up for the 2019 Changsha International Guitar Festival (July 26-30) includes: Álvaro Pierri (Uraguay); Marco Pereira (Brazil); Grisha Goryachev(Russia/USA) [flamenco]; Raphael Feuillatre (France); Alexandr MISKO Guitar (Russia) [fingerstyle]; Jihyung Park (Korea) [Changsha winner, 2018]; Xuefei Yang & Jiafeng Chen (China) [guitar and violin duo].More info at www.guitar.org.cn
Xuefei's latest recording "Milonga del Angel" features virtuosic duos for guitar and violin; with winner of the renowned Paganini competition, Mengla Huang, on violin. The recording is available digitally on the usual platforms such as iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify etc. More details on the recordings page.
Xuefei was awarded an Honary Fellowship from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The award was presented by the Principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Professor Julian Lloyd Webber, after touching speech made by Head of Guitar, Mark Ashford.
Xuefei and Zhang Weiliang (xiao) give the world premier of
Xiang He Ge, composed by Joel Hoffman for the duo.
The concert was filmed in the National Centre for Performing
Arts in Beijing.
Interview with Xuefei ahead of the Xuefei Yang Guitar Series, being presented at The National Concert Hall in Dublin
Interview with Xuefei for Guitar Player magazine by Mark Davis.
A new twenty minute documentary, "Talking about Music -
Xuefei Yang," (in Mandarin) made by China's Wuxi TV.
For non-Mandarin speakers, there are some new live music
clips too :
- 3m52s : Vivaldi RV158 (with iMusici)
- 10m19s : Lamentos do Morro (solo)
- 17m44s : Tango en Skai (with iMusici), worth watching
until the end of the program.
Enjoy !
Xuefei made the list of top 6 classical guitarists in BBC Music Magazine, and is one of three classical guitarists to make the top 50 women guitarists in Guitar Player magazine.
This 30 minute documentary about Xuefei was broadcast on
Chinese National TV earlier this year.
It's in Chinese but has lots of music and many interesting
behind the scenes insights.
Xuefei's latest solo album features the guitar music of Brazil. Winner of HiFi's 2017 Best Instrumental Album.
China TV's (English language) "Icon" program recently dedicated a 30 minute episode to Xuefei.
Xuefei continues her successful collaboration with British tenor Ian Bostridge. Songs from Our Ancestors is the very first release by Globe Music, a new record label from Shakespeare's Globe. The CD received a double five-star review from BBC Music Magazine (Xmas 2016 edition).
Xuefei has arranged three well known Chinese pieces for solo guitar.
Flowing Water, dating from the Ming Dynasty & originally for guqin; and Sword Dance, inspired by a poem from the Tang Dynasty, & originally for liuqin ; Drunken Ecstasy , attributed to the 3rd century scholar Ruan Ji, & originally for guqin
All three pieces feature on the Songs from our Ancestors recording.
Xuefei has a series of four graded repertoire books for children, beginners, intermediate, & advanced players. In addition to the pieces, the books include Xuefei's suggestions for approaching the pieces either from a technical or musical perspective. This video features a section of a piece from the intermediate book. The series is published by Doberman-Yppan.
Julian Bream was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gramophone Awards in London. In tribute, Ian and Xuefei were invited to perform a selection from Britten's Songs from the Chinese, written for Bream and Peter Pears.
Xuefei received the great honour of being made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music - a title held by at most 300 people at any one time. Xuefei received her award at a ceremony in London from HRH The Duchess of Gloucester.
