Music of Tranquility that Brings Peace to Mind and Transcends Thousands of Years

Ancient Wisdom of the Oriental, Merciful Advice of Bodhisattva

“I used to like showing off my skills during performance. Now I begin to understand the art of deduction. Following one deduction after another, the superficial glamour is eventually gone. What has been left in the creation is just a dialogue between me and the one I used to be.” -Wang Xinxin

XinXin Nanguan Ensemble Temporality and Nirvana

XinXin Nanguan Ensemble Temporality and Nirvana

Temporality and Nirvana is a masterpiece created by modern Chinese nanguang musician Wang Xinxin after she has achieved another level of understanding about lives. The first part, Spring Festival, presents the primitive yet elegant music style of nanguang in a nine-person ensemble. The second part, Temporality and Nirvana, is a new piece of nanguang music re-arranged by Wang Xinxin based on the theme of Guanyin Bodhisattva (aka. Buddha of Mercy). The Heart Sutra in Temporality and Nirvana, in particular, describes Guanyin’s wisdom as a vehicle, carrying people from this shore to that shore and then arriving at Buddha’s kingdom. With the signature slow rhythms of nanguang, each word of the lyric are deliberately prolonged for the audiences to patiently savor its meaning as if they were all utterances of Guanyin.

Wang Xinxin

“We wait in silence before she shows up; when she begins to sing, we simply forget where we are,” described Lin Hwai-ming. Wang Xinxin started learning nanguan at the age of four. Since then, she has mastered various types of this Chinese ancient music and is particularly famous for her singing, thus becoming a rare well-round talent in the nanguan music. She establishes the Xinxin Nanguang Ensemble, dedicated to promoting the traditional music by upholding the principle of “the most ancient is also the most modern.

When: 10-11 Mar 2016 Thur-Fri 19:30
Where: National Theater & Concert Hall, Taipei
Price: NT$ 600/800

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