Wu Man, a Hangzhou native, is today one of the world's leading musical ambassadors, a master of the pipa, a four- stringed lute with ancient roots in Central Asia and China, who is bridging East and West, old and new, whether playing traditional folk music with Chinese villagers, or performing contemporary music written just for her by some of today's leading Western classical composers.

Pipa musician Wu Man

Wu Man took up the instrument from her childhood for a very old-fashioned reason - her parents wanted her to.

A young star in China, studying at Beijing's prestigious Central Conservatory of Music, Wu had a performing and teaching career laid out before her. However, 26-year-old Wu decided that China's musical life and the pipa's traditional repertoire were too limited. She came to the U.S. in 1990 with her husband and started over.

The couple lived in New Haven, but Wu began to come into New York, to Chinatown, to find musicians to play with.

Yo-Yo Ma was just one of the prominent American musicians who heard Wu play and realized her extraordinary talent. Contemporary composers, including Philip Glass, wrote new pieces for her. And Wu herself was on a mission.

At the same time, she realized that, as a conservatory-trained performer, she really knew little about folk music in her own country. Asked to curate part of a Chinese festival for Carnegie Hall, Wu returned to China two years ago to seek out musicians from small villages who play at weddings, funerals, festivals, and other local events.

By Charlie