North American Guqin Association

5 weeks intensive guqin class with Wang Fei

Dear Qin Friends,

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 is planning a 5 week intensive workshop starting March 12th, 2013.

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 evening of Janurary 24th, NAGA will organize a guqin gathering with Professor Zhao Jiazhen in Union City, at which participants will experience listening to live guqin performances by different qin players from different schools and teachers as well as discover other art forms and other music tranditions, and share each other’s insights 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 2013 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

and http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/newsletters/06nagaevents/nagachinatripreport.htm.

2.Local participants can continue their guqin study by joining the upcoming advanced guqin class “Chinese poetry through the guqin: a practical tool to learn Chinese language and culture”, and learn traditional guqin pieces. This course starts in summer. For details, please visit http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/newsletters/09nagaevents/poetryclass.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 and fees

1.     Group lessons, Sundays, 1 to 3pm, start March 12th, 2013 or eariler whenever 5-8 people are filled. $420 for 5 Sundays

Priviate individual sessions are also available. Please contact info@guqin.org to make an appointment. $420 for 4 sessions. Each session lasts 1.5 hours.

 

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 Dec. 28th will have free guqin rental, and will be able to take the instrument home to practice. Please register now.

Chinese music specialist and NAGA class sponsor Beijingers.com will provide discounts for participants enrolled in the 4 week class, with prices of guqins starting from only $199 (please see the description of each model recommended for participants enrolled in this class).

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


Please follow Wang Fei on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/wangfeimusic.
Wang Fei's Chinese twitter, one of the most popular guqin weibo pages: http://www.weibo.com/guqinyin

 

Registration

The number of places is limited, and space is available on a first-come-first-served basis, so please register now! Email registration is highly recommended! Please click here for registration form and email to info@guqin.org:

Please send your payment to along with the registration form to:

North American Guqin Association

PO BOX 232

Fremont, CA 94537-0232


http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/newsletters/13nagaevents/13nagaclassregisterform.doc

 

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:

1.     NAGA: http://www.guqin.org

2.     NAGA E-Newsletter: http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/joinus.html

3.     Twitter: http://twitter.com/nagaguqin

4.     Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/chineseculture

5.     Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/guqin

6.     LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2681353

7.     Sina Weibo: http://weibo.com/nagaguqin



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