Michael Church meets Chinese pipa player Wu Man (吴蛮) and introduces her instrument and music on the Guardian:

An eighth-century Chinese poet likened the sound of the pipa, the leaf-shaped Chinese lute, to that of pearls falling on a jade plate. That may be accurate, but it’s only one of the effects the world’s leading player can extract from it: Wu Man’s pipa can crack jokes, sing sweetly, caress, howl or roar - sounds you’d scarcely dream it was possible to produce with 10 fingernails and four strings over a shallow rosewood box.

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The Cusp of Magic

Terry Riley’s The Cusp of Magic, with the Kronos Quartet and Wu Man, is relasesed on February 4 by Nonesuch.