The guqin is a unique
Chinese musical instrument with many playing techniques that needs to be taught
orally by masters. Unfortunately, there are very few guqin teachers in
the United States. More and more people are people are becoming fascinated by
the guqin but cannot find a qualified teacher. Even self-teach is very
difficult because there is no English instructional material.
NAGA’s intensive four-day summer
workshop spread over four weeks is starting now.
Courses objectives
The goal of this workshop is to
enable participants to experience what the guqin is, and learn authentic guqin playing from a master in a very short period. The course will
concentrate on the major left and right hand techniques.
Participants will meet other
people with the same interest from different areas and make qin friends.
Special event
On the afternoon of July 22nd,
NAGA will organize a yalon in the Japanese Garden in Hayward, CA,
at which participants will experience guqin music in a natural environmentas
shown in many ancient paintings, meet old and new friends,
enjoy flowers and goldfish, recite poems, sing opera, take photographs, discuss
a variety of topics as well as share your recent worldwide travel experiences
etc.
After the workshop
1.NAGA
recently established a new office in Beijing which will be devoted to international
guqin cultural exchange and will introduce a guqin-themed hotel, restaurants,
concert hall, theater, exhibitions, recording studio, qin making studio, qin
classrooms with bilingual instruction, etc. Our 2012 international NAGA class +
cultural tour will take place from October 18-25. All participants can enroll
in that tour, coming soon. Please see our past tours at http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/newsletters/2010nagaevents/beijingtour101010.htm
3.Non-local participants can
teach themselves by following NAGA’s instructional material set (book, video,
Chinese English dictionary of guqin terms, etc).
Times and dates
1.Individual sessions are starting now. Please contact info@guqin.org to make an appointment. Each session lasts 1.5 hours.
2.Group lessons, Sundays, 1 to 4pm, start whenever
5-8 people register and the classes are filled.
Fees
$400 for 4 sessions
Venue
Union City, CA. Address to be
announced after registration. Accessible by public transportation.
Class size
Because we intend to run a
beginner-friendly group using a traditional teaching style, one student per guqin,
space is limited.
Instruments
Instruments
can be rented for the full 4 sessions duration of the course (normal cost $50);
rental can be credited towards the purchase of a qin. Instruments can also
be purchased from the teacher.
Participants
who enroll and pay before July 30th will have free guqin rental, and will be able to take the instrument home to practice. Please
register now.
Good guqins will be provided for use during the classes, one for each
student. Participants do not need to bring their own instruments.
Instructor
Classes will be led by NAGA
Director and China Guqin Committee Council member Wang Fei. Wang Fei has
a background in classical Chinese literature and guqin music and has
been a Mandarin news host and producer at China National Radio. She studied guqin under Professor Li Xiangting, one of the great guqin masters of this
century, since 1985. She has inherited the traditions, styles, concepts and
masterpieces of her “grand teachers” Zha Fuxi, Wu Jinglue and Guan Pinghu, the
three greatest guqin masters of the last century, and transmits them
through her guqin teaching, performance and promotion in the western
world. Wang Fei is one of the few guqin teachers who offer guqin lessons in traditional form, covering both guqin playing and guqin study. She has won several awards for Chinese music, has toured internationally
and has given speeches, lectures, workshops and seminars on the guqin at
many prestigious universities including Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA and the
Central Conservatory of Music. She has also given presentations on Chinese
culture to many Fortune 500 companies.
For a brief introduction to the guqin in English,please see
For
details of any of these classes and to enroll, please email info@guqin.org
About NAGA
The North American Guqin
Association (NAGA) is a nonprofit cultural arts organization dedicated to
the public presentation and preservation of the art of the guqin,
spreading community appreciation of Chinese culture through the traditional art
of the guqin and building a bridge for cultural exchange and mutual
understanding between the Chinese and American communities. NAGA offers guqin classes, performances, recordings, workshops etc.
Please subscribe to the
following NAGA social networks to stay tuned for incoming news and events:
North American Guqin Association