Guo Yue (musician)

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Guo Yue is a renowned virtuoso of the Chinese bamboo flute. ^[1] He was born in Beijing, China and as a young boy experienced the Cultural Revolution. In 1982 Yue left China and, with the help of his third sister Yan who was living in England, he studied the silver flute at the Guildhall School of Music. He plays many kinds of the bamboo flute and currently lives in London, recording for Peter Gabriel's Real World label. His other great love is cooking, and he often combines cookery with flute playing at his concerts.^[2]

1 Background
2 Music
3 Film and theatre work
4 Cookery
5 Writing
6 See also
7 References

[edit] Background

Yue was born in 1958, the youngest of 6 children, the year of Mao's Great Leap Forward. His name is a revolutionary one: Guo meaning Kingdom, Yue meaning Leap Forward. His family lived in a traditional courtyard in the maze of old alleys known as the Hutongs, between the beautiful Drum and Bell Towers and the river where he played as a child. His courtyard housed the families of five traditional musicians, mostly from the countryside. From these musicians who (unlike his father) had received no formal musical training, he learned how to put not just his breath but his whole body into playing the flute. ^[3]

[edit] Music

Since living in England, Yue has composed, arranged, performed and recorded traditional Chinese music. In I990 with his brother Guo Yi, who plays the sheng (an ancient hand-held bamboo wind instrument), they made a Real World album called 'Yuan', which also features the voice of his second sister Xuan. As the Guo Brothers, they performed at international festivals and concerts, including WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) Festivals worldwide. Since 1990 Yue worked as a soloist, writing his own music, and from 2003 he has workied in "Shan Qi" with Giovanni Amighetti, Helge A. Norbakken, Guido Ponzini, Wu Fei and Gjermund Silset.

Yue has not confined himself to traditional Chinese music, and has worked with Peter Gabriel, Sinead O'Connor and Hothouse Flowers. He has also collaborated with musicians and composers from Africa, Italy and Japan. In 1992 he made the album 'Trisan' (Real World) with Joji Hirota, the Japanese Taiko drummer, and the Irish singer/composer Pol Brennan; this won an American instrumental award. Then in 1995 Yue and Joji recorded the album 'Red Ribbon'. In 1999 Yue performed his bamboo flutes concerto 'My Peking Alley' with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the WOMAD Festival in Reading. ^[4]

[edit] Film and theatre work

Yue has also worked on the soundtracks of several international films, including Bertolucci's Oscar-winning 'The Last Emperor' and 'The Killing Fields'. ^[5] He also played the soundtrack theme, composed by George Fenton, for the Emmy award-winning Channel Four television documentary 'Beyond the Clouds' which was directed by Phil Agland who commented: 'In the magical hands of Guo Yue, the bawu flute creates sounds that haunt the soul'.

Currently Horse and Bamboo Theatre and Barefoot Books are collaborating with Yue and his wife, Clare Farrow, to develop a new theatre production based on the story of his childhood.

[edit] Cookery

Yue is also a specialist in authentic Chinese cooking, and gives cookery workshops in cookery schools and food festivals worldwide, often combined with music. 'Music, Food and Art' is held in Beijing, and groups of 8 to 10 students travel with him to stay in the hutongs where he grew up, visiting local markets and learning food preparation and cookery techniques, and the relationship of food to health, culture and music.

[edit] Writing

"There was a saying in my childhood that you could always tell when it was six o'clock in the evening, because at that moment the entire city would begin to vibrate with the force of everybody's chopping. And in the courtyards you could always tell what your neighbours were preparing, simply by listening to the speed and rhythm of their chopping."

Yue has written 'Music, Food and Love' with Clare Farrow, which was published in 2006. It tells the story of the Chinese Cultural Revolution through the eyes of a musical child. Yue had very little schooling, but an instinctive love of music, nature and cooking enabled him to find a means of self-expression at a time when freedom and individuality were suppressed by the policies of Mao Zedong.

Yue recounts his childhood before and during the Revolution. In sensual detail he evokes the colours, smells, tastes and sounds of a world that no longer exists. Among the most moving passages are those written about his mother, from whom he was separated during the Revolution.^[6]

[edit] See also

Shan Qi - http://www.arvmusic.org/Shan%20Qi.html
'Music, Food and Love' by Guo Yue/Clare Farrow. Publ. Piatkus ISBN 10-07499 50781
Guo Yue website - http://www.guoyuemusic.com/
Discography: 'Music, Food and Love' - Real World Records: 'Yuan' - Real World Records: 'Trisan' - Real World Records: 'Red Ribbon' - Riverboat Records