Good morning, afternoon, and evening,

Today, I recorded another piece for valiha and voice—an improvisation. In the past, I’ve talked a bit about the valiha’s history: it’s a tube zither from Madagascar, made from a species of local bamboo, and is considered the country’s national instrument.

Recently, I came across a theory that the valiha may have been “inherited from King David,” as part of a larger origin narrative about the Jewish provenance of the Malagasy people. There’s a lot of reading out there on this cultural and historical connection. I love how much I’ve learned about humanity simply through my passion for instruments from around the world.

It’s much easier to rewrite / alter history with words than to change how to make an instrument. So much truth from human history is carried within musical instruments that often don’t align with written or oral history.

Hope this piece brings you sweet dreams!

Wu Fei 吴非

Wufeimusic.com

Wufeimusic.bandcamp.com

Good morning, afternoon, and evening,

I composed this three-voice guzheng canon. I was inspired by the memory when my ferry passed by the Waitematā Harbor in Auckland, New Zealand ten days ago. These giant metal crane arms looked like three singers to me. The ocean is their concert hall. The reflection is their song.

The word canon in a contrapuntal compositional technique where a melody (the "leader") is imitated by one or more voices (the "follower") after a given duration. It is a strict form of composition where the second part mimics the first, sometimes at different intervals, creating a layered, interwoven sound. In 14th and 15th century Europe, canon was very popular. Later, composers started to develop non-strict canon, such as mirror canon, table canon, double canon, rhythmic canon, proportional canon, inversion canon etc.. The list keeps on going. What a fascinating world of canons :) Hope this piece brings you a joyful moment!

Wu Fei 吴非

Check out my Bandcamp: Wufeimusic.bandcamp.com for purchases:

My albums are available on Bandcamp:

* A Distant Youth (recorded in Parma and Venice, Italy and Oakland, California)

featuring Fred Frith 🇬🇧 (acoustic & electric guitars),

Carla Kilhlstedt 🇺🇸 (violin),

Helge A. Norbakken 🇳🇴 (percussion)

* Pluck (recorded in Brooklyn, NY)

Wu Fei and Gyan Riley (classical guitar)

Thank you for your support!

Good morning, afternoon, and evening,

How have you been?

I’ve just returned home to the U.S. after visiting my family in New Zealand. Thank you for your patience and understanding during my absence — I needed that time to focus on being with my loved ones. The vast ocean has never made our reunions easy, so this trip meant the world to me.

On the day I left Auckland, it was my parent-in-laws’ 60th wedding anniversary. I’m so happy that I got to play music for them and their close friends while I was there.

Today’s guzheng piece is called “The Five‑Ring Love.”

In Chinese culture, every twelve years is one lún (轮) — a cycle. Sixty years make five lún.

Sixty years ago, they married in a Fire Horse year — fierce and bright. Now, in another Fire Horse year, their love is as deep as ever.

I named this piece “Five‑Ring Love” because their sixty years together are like five perfect cycles of twelve — five rounds of the zodiac, five laps around the sun’s great calendar.

And just as the Olympic rings stand for endurance, excellence, and unity, they too are champions of a lifetime walked side by side.

The Chinese title of this piece is “在地愿为连理枝.”

在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝。

Direct translation:

In heaven, we wish to be two birds flying wing to wing;

on earth, two trees with branches intertwined from one root.

This couplet comes from the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi (白居易, 772–846 CE). He wrote his most famous poem, “Song of Everlasting Sorrow” (长恨歌), in 806 CE.

Wu Fei 吴非

Wufeimusic.com

Wu Fei's Music Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Good morning, afternoon, and evening,

How are you doing, my dear subscribers? Thank you all for your patience and support! I hope you all had a restful and fun weekend!

I’ve returned from playing at the Big Ears Music Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. I had a wonderful time presenting two different concerts during the festival. The photo above is from my first concert — Wu Fei and Shanir Blumenkranz. The second concert, in the photo below, was at the First Presbyterian Sanctuary—photo by an audience member who sent it to me from Instagram. Both cathedrals had amazing acoustics, and I felt transcended to a different time and space while playing. Both concerts were full house, and I received standing ovations at the end. It was incredible. I always prefer not to use any amplification when I play in venues like these. When I am transformed sonically into a different being, I create something new.

At the beginning of my solo concert, I spotted my teacher from Mills College, Fred Frith, sitting in the audience. (Fred gave two performances too at this year’s Big Ears Festival.) That he chose my concert out of two hundred performances throughout the four-day festival meant the world to me. Without Fred’s guidance when I was a young composer, I wouldn’t have the career I have today. I got emotional on stage and started tearing up, wanting to give Fred a deep bow and a big hug. I also saw David Byrne (of Talking Heads) sitting in the audience. I was surprised and in awe. I remember when I played Big Ears for the first time in 2017—now, to my third time playing this festival a few days ago—I have grown so much and gained so many experiences. Yet the excitement of sharing my newest material with the audience has never changed. I’m sure I’ll be back to this festival with many more new projects that are in the making.

I hope today’s new guzheng piece takes you to a new place too.

As this newsletter is being sent to you, I’m also getting ready for my next journey leaving tomorrow —New Zealand. I’ve been missing my family members in the South Pacific. I’ll continue sharing my daily music on Substack’s Notes app since I won’t be bringing my recording gear this time. I’ll be sharing both audio and video with you all on Substack Notes. My regular newsletter will resume after April 14.

See you all soon on Substack Notes from New Zealand!

Wu Fei 吴非

Wufeimusic.com

Wu Fei's Music Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Friends who are coming to Big Ears this year,

I’m playing two concerts at Big Ears Festival 2026 Knoxville, TN

• March 27 Friday 5:30PM

St. John Cathedral

WU FEI + SHANIR EZRA BLUMENKRANZ (oud/gimbri /double bass)

• March 28 Saturday 5:45PM

First Presbyterian Sanctuary

WU FEI’S MOON HUNTER (SOLO)

Some day passes are still available though weekend passes are sold out.

Passes: bigearsfestival.org

Wu Fei 吴非

wufeimusic.com

Good morning, afternoon, and evening,

Three days ago, after the tornado passed through Nashville, the temperature dropped below zero again. Our crabapple tree had just started blossoming before it hit. I was worried whether the blossoms would be blown off completely by the extreme winds. Then, when the temperature dropped, I worried again that the blossoms would not come out as they did last year because it was too cold. They survived!

Speaking of survival and new growth, I have some personal news to share. I’ll be a guest on Nashville Public Radio (WPLN) at:

10am (U.S. Eastern Time), 11am (Central Time), 12pm (Mountain Time) and 1pm (Pacific Time) this Friday, March 20, on their flagship show, This is Nashville .

For those of you unfamiliar with the program, This Is Nashville is a live one-hour daily show driven by community, for community. It’s become a one-stop-shop for news in Nashville and Middle Tennessee, and I’m honored to be part of the conversation this week.

You can tune in live at 90.3 FM, online at wpln.org, or catch the episode on their YouTube live stream channel. If you’re on social media, you can follow them on Instagram: @thisisnashville_wpln for updates.

Hope this guzheng night song brings you joy—and maybe I’ll see some of you on the radio this Friday. 🎙️🌸

Listen / Watch:

📻 90.3 WPLN | 🌐 wpln.org | 📺 YouTube @wpln | Instagram @thisisnashville_wpln

🔗 https://wpln.org/shows-and-podcasts/this-is-nashville/

Podcast: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1083459707/this-is-nashville

Wu Fei 吴非

Wufeimusic.com

Good morning, afternoon, and evening,

I composed and recorded this multi-track guzheng piece today. Last night, I stayed on the Nashville Severe Weather YouTube channel for two hours, watching their live stream of a tornado watch. It’s stormy weather once more in Nashville. A few years ago, my family and I hid in our tornado shelter closet in the middle of the night with helmets on. It was scary. Last night, my nervous system was on high alert again. This time, we got lucky! The forest is peaceful again. Hope you all are safe wherever you are!

Wu Fei 吴非

Wufeimusic.com

Wu Fei's Music Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Good morning, afternoon, and evening,

I am super excited to share with you that I am returning to the Big Ears Festival 2026, Knoxville, Tennessee! All the early-bird four-day passes have been sold out. However, there are still other types of passes are available. More pass info is here.

* Concert 1: March 27, 5:30pm at St. John Cathedral

Wu Fei and Shanir Blumenkranz

Wu Fei and Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz are living proof of the magic that happens when seemingly disparate worlds collide—finding exhilarating chemistry in the space between. Fei, a Beijing-born, Nashville-based master of the guzheng, first made her mark two decades ago in New York’s improvisational scene, not only through her command of the ancient instrument but through her gift for using it as a springboard for modern composition. Blumenkranz, a Brooklyn-born, Boston-educated bassist and oud player, became equally vital to that same downtown world, collaborating extensively with John Zorn and figures like Jon Madof, Cyro Baptista, and Jamie Saft. Their paths converged in 2019, when Blumenkranz became an essential part of Fei’s symphony Hello Gold Mountain, a work commemorating Jewish refugees who found shelter in China during WWII. In the years since, the duo has slowly built a shared language—one heard to riveting effect during a 2024 set at Lincoln Center. On “Mountain Ivy,” Fei’s impressionistic guzheng patterns intertwined with Blumenkranz’s double bass, which bounded between percussive weight and gnarled bow scrapes as her voice rose in reply. Elsewhere, his oud traced dizzying lines against her strings, creating patterns like light fractured through crystal. Both are singular players on their own. Together, they are staggering.

Info: https://bigearsfestival.org/event/wu-fei-with-shanir-blumenkranz/

* Concert 2: March 28, 5:45pm at First Presbyterian Sanctuary

Wu Fei’s Moon Hunter

Wu Fei is one of the most generous working musicians in the world, a master of the guzheng who not only updates the ancient Chinese instrument’s repertoire but also shares its story and sound with as many people as possible. To wit, when Covid-19 hamstrung all global touring in 2020, Fei launched an email newsletter, Music Daily; five years later, long after so many pandemic projects have faded, she is more than 1,200 entries deep, using the platform to offer new songs, improvisations, and interpretations of Chinese and American standards. That practice comports with her long-open approach to the instrument, whether it’s recording an album with Abigail Washburn, improvising with Fred Frith, or performing with oud master Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, as she will also do at Big Ears 2026.

Info: https://bigearsfestival.org/event/wu-feis-moon-hunter/

Wu Fei's Music Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Wu Fei 吴非

Wufeimusic.com

Friends,

If you’re feeling stressed out or tired, I hope this guzheng night song improvisation brings you a moment of calm, even if only temporary. I recorded it yesterday, thinking of the setar (photo below), a traditional Iranian string instrument. The two setars belong to Reza Filsoofi, an Iranian American musician. He recently joined me on stage during my Lunar New Year concert in Nashville, bringing both setars to the rehearsal—each tuned to a different key.

The Setar is a key instrument in Persian classical music tracing back more than 1,000 years. I learned that Persians named their lutes around the word tār, meaning string, combining it with a word for the number of strings. Du + tār is the two-stringed dutār; se + tār is the three-stringed setār; and then there’s čārtār (four strings), pančtār (five strings). And guess where the word guitar comes from? :)

The modern Iranian instrument’s name, سه‌تار (setâr), is a combination of se—meaning “three”—and târ—meaning “string.” So the name itself means “three-stringed” or “tri-stringed.”

Despite the name suggesting three strings, the modern instrument actually has four (like Reza’s setars), with the extra string added in the 19th century. However, the strings are grouped in such a way that musicians still approach them as three courses, rather than four individually played strings.

The sound of the guzheng and setar together is simply magical. I’ll share an audio clip of the piece Reza and I performed together in the near future.

Wu Fei 吴非

Wufeimusic.com

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Happy new year of the horse! 马年吉祥！

It’s taken a village to make my new year concert happen on February 15th. It was a full house! I want to thank:

Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music:

* Professors : Isi Miranda, Robbie Fry, Nathan Cheung, Ryan Middagh

Guest artists:

* Reza Filsoofi, Larissa Maestro, Heather Moulder, Erik Shapnack,

Nate Spratford, Miles Buchmann, Lucas Giordano

Community partners:

* The Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville

* API Middle Tennessee

My family and all the friends and audience 🙏 I felt like I was at my wedding surrounded by love ❤️

Today’s 4-track prepared guzheng piece was inspired by the dumplings made by my parents last night. It is a tradition for us to eat homemade dumplings on the first day of the new year! Wish you all a peaceful, healthy and prosperous new year!

Wu Fei 吴非

Wufeimusic.com