Ma Xiaohui - Career

Career

Equally at home on television or stage, Xiaohui Ma toured extensively across Europe, Asia and the Americas since the late 1990s, appearing with noted orchestras in more than one hundred concerts in additional to presenting several-fold more lectures. European appearances have included the Berlin Chamber Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the French National Symphony Orchestra, Switzerland's Symphony Orchestra St. Gallen, and the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra (their first Chinese performer). Many of her recitals featured her global "Erhu Dialogues," a musical conversation encompassing Oriental and Western civilization. Notable recent European performances include a recital for the King and Queen of Sweden (2007), along with Chinese President Hu Jintao, followed by a concert for the King of Finland (2008).

In North America her programs include performances with conductor David Stern at Colorado's Crested Butte Music Festival (2007) and the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of Washington, DC (2007), as well as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (1999, 2006) and at Mt. Vernon for the White House Historical Society (2007). She also appeared at the United Nations, at New York Philharmonic conductor Lorin Maazel's Castleton Theater (Châteauville Foundation), with the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra, and at an internationally televised program at the famed Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, California. In 2008 Miss Ma performed in New York City for her debut at the Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall.

In Asia, Xiaohui Ma has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of China, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan's NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Singapore National Symphony, and at Classical Concert Hall in Seoul, Korea, among others. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's Shanghai African summit in Shanghai presented Miss Ma's artistry to African heads of state (2006) and she earlier represented China at Bravo China in Athens, Greece (2002) and as lead musician for the APEC meeting in Shanghai (1999). Miss Ma is often seen in television music specials on Chinese CCTV and Chinese MTV.

Appearing in over 40 CDs, Xiaohui Ma has also composed numerous pieces, including her major works "The Spirit of My Erhu" and "The Story of Two Strings" (premiered at the Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany). Among her significant adaptations of Western and Chinese classical compositions are Béla Bartók's "Romanian Folk Dances," Johann Sebastian Bach's "Inventions II" and Sonatas, Fritz Kreisler's "Liebesleid" and the Ping Tan Opera "Call Mother in the Nunnery." World premieres include "Wailing Waters," "Chant & Allegro," "Maiden Lan Hua-Hua," "Genghis Khan," "The Shepherd Girl," "Hard to Say Good-Bye," "Night Color in the Desert" and "Deep at Night."

A respected music scholar, she has also lectured at dozens of world universities, including the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, Pomona College, Fudan University, and Jiaotong University. In 2007, Azusa Pacific University hosted her as World Music Scholar-in-Residence, and she conducted a concert at Scripps College in collaboration with Claremont Graduate University's transdisciplinary course "Shanghai Rising."