Min Xiao-Fen   Biography

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Internationally known for her virtuosity and fluid style, pipa soloist/singer/composer Min Xiao-Fen has received high acclaim for her classical, new music and jazz performances. She learned the pipa from her father, Min Ji-Qian, a professor and pipa master at Nanjing University. At age 17, she was chosen by the famed Nanjing Traditional Music Orchestra of China and spent over ten years as pipa soloist. She also won first prize at the Jiangsu National Pipa Competition in China and eventually become a first class artist in China.

Since Ms. Min moved to the United States in 1992, she has been featured soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Pacific Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Amiens Chamber Orchestra in France and the Nieuw Ensemble in Holland. She has also performed at the Lincoln Center Festival, the World Music Institute, the New York Guitar Festival, the Asia Society, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Vienna Music Festival, the Amsterdam - China Festival, the Utrecht International Lute Festival, the Geneva Music Festival, the Berlin Chinese Music Festival, and the TUM Festival in Finland.

She worked with legendary jazz pianist Randy Weston, composing a duet piece, Shang, that was recorded for his album Khepera (Verve). Min also recorded Shaolin Ulysses and The Port of Last Resort (Tzadik), movie soundtracks composed by John Zorn. She premiered composer Tan Dun’s Peony Pavilion (Sony), an opera with director Peter Sellars. She also worked with composers Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bun-Ching Lam, Philip Glass, Wadada Leo Smith, Jane Ira Bloom, Mark Dresser, Jon Jang and Ned Rothenberg. Min’s solo recording, The Moon Rising (Cala), was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as “one of the best CDs of 1996.” Her recording Viper (Avant), improvisations with Derek Bailey, was one of The Wire Magazine’s 1998 Albums of the Year.

Min’s was the first Chinese musician invited to play at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City when she performed a solo set of the music of Thelonious Monk. Her composition, Wild Wild East, was commissioned and performed for the IAJE International Conference in Toronto, Canada in 2004, and Min received an Outstanding Service to Jazz Education Award. Later that year, Min’s piece The Loneliest Monk was commissioned and performed by The Kitchen’s House Blend in New York City, and she premiered composer Anthony De Ritis’ pipa concerto, Ping Pong, with the Taipei Chinese Music Orchestra. In 2005, she was invited by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans to play as a special guest, and her Blue Pipa Trio appeared at the JVC Jazz Festival.

2007 and 2008 highlights included a guest appearance on singer Björk’s album, Volta, and later Min was invited to perform as a special guest at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Min also premiered composer Huang Ruo’s solo work, Written on the Wind, for Meet the Composer. She received a new commission, Return of the Dragon, from The Kitchen, and followed up with a performance with her Asian Trio. She was a featured composer and performed her solo piece, Blue Pipa, for the American Composers Orchestra’s “Composer Out Front” series. The Flower Smells Sweet at Night was commissioned by and performed at the Silk Screen Festival for her Blue Pipa Trio and guest, and Ghost Masks, was commissioned by and performed at the Glatt & Verkehrt Festival in Krems, Austria.

In 2009, Min performed Return of the Dragon with her Asian Trio for the opening of Chinese Cultural Week at Millennium Park in Chicago. She was a featured soloist at the Macao Arts Festival, the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival with the Macao Orchestra and the Great Mountains International Music Festival in Korea. She was also honored with support from the Asian Cultural Council to study and research Tang Dynasty music in China and Japan.

Min has taught many master classes and has been an artist in residence at schools and universities across the United States and Europe, including the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Texas A&M University, Boston Conservatory, The New School, Columbia University, Haystack Mountain School of Arts & Crafts, James Madison University, Wellesley College, University of California, San Diego, Pittsburgh’s CAPA High School, Brooklyn Friends School and Amsterdam Conservatory.

She is the founder of Blue Pipa Inc. (www.bluepipa.org) and currently lives in Forest Hills, Queens..