#WorldViewChats July 8
UNC World View’s July 8th twitter chat will feature the friendship and music of musicians Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn! After viewing the two short videos listed below we will chat about how cultures are bridged and diplomacy gained through music and strategies for bringing global music into the classroom. Please enjoy the beautiful story and music of Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn and join us on Wednesday, July 8 at 1pm EDT using the hashtag #WorldViewChats.
- The Ripple Effect: Two Cultures, One Voice, 7 minute video. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PULp6jWJNk
- Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn performing Banjo Guzheng Pickin’ Girl at Music City Roots Live From The Factory on 12.09.2015. 3 minute video. Available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5GyM3rI3VA
UNC World View had the honor to work with 12 exceptional North Carolina educators, Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei as part of the 2019-2020 World View Global Music Fellows Program. Through an intensive professional development opportunity Fellows developed a comprehensive teaching toolkit with background information, lesson plans, learning activities and educator resources that can be used to support educators in integrating global music into K-12 and community college classrooms. The teaching toolkit accompanies the Smithsonian Folkways album Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn, released in April 2020. To learn more about World View’s Global Music Fellows and to access the teaching toolkit click here.
We look forward to an engaging discussion!
Meet the Musicians
Abigail Washburn, daughter of idealistic, hardworking Midwestern parents from Evanston, IL wasn’t particularly musical as a child–that would come later. As a young girl in Beijing, Wu Fei was a musical prodigy, fast-tracked to be one of the very best musicians in a country of over a billion people. Abigail expected to become a lawyer with the goal of bettering US-China relations. Fei was to become a professional musician performing state-sanctioned works in austere settings. But both women chose a fork in the road. Abigail has improved US-China relations with a banjo not with a briefcase, touring the world and releasing a number of records that mingle Appalachian and Chinese folk music. She is one of the few foreign artists currently touring China independently and regularly and her journeys include a month-long tour (Nov-Dec 2011) of China’s Silk Road supported by grants from the US Embassy, Beijing. Abigail, along with 24 other innovative and creative thinkers worldwide, was named a TED Fellow and gave a talk at the 2012 TED Convention in Long Beach about building US-China relations through music. Visit Abigail Washburn’s website to learn more.
Wu Fei became a guzheng master and multilingual composer of her own works assimilating avant-garde classical and folk music from around the world while retaining her own voice. Her commissions range from a composition for the Percussions Claviers de Lyon (France) that premiered in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, to live performances in Paris and Tokyo for Hermès. Wu Fei has composed for Balinese gamelan, symphony orchestra, choir, string quartet, chamber ensemble, film, and modern dance. During this period, Fei toured the world extensively performing at some of the most respected museums, festivals and events. Her time in the States studying free improvisation led her to Boulder, CO where she would discover bluegrass music and meet Abigail. Visit Wu Fei’s website to learn more.