Genre-defying percussionist Beibei Wang is an acclaimed international virtuoso multi-percussionist,composer with both Chinese and British musical education background. Beibei has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the classical music world, receiving international praise for her projects. Her music spans many genres, ranging from classical, contemporary, experimental, traditional ,improvisation, electronic, jazz, pop. By exploring new possibilities and challenging assumptions from all fields, she and her collaborators have developed genre-defying projects, pushing boundaries, including Dance theater, Multimedia opera, Body & Sound live painting, Film installation, delighting audiences the world over.
She received double Master Degrees from the Central Conservatory of Music (China) and the Royal Academy of Music (UK). In 2014, she was listed in the top 50 Chinese musicians in the “Sound of East” project by the Chinese Ministry of Culture. In 2015, she was endorsed by the Arts Council ,England receiving an Exceptional Talent visa from British Government.
She has been giving masterclass/workshop across UK,Europe,US and China. Following a successful recital at SOAS ,University of London, Beibei now leads a traditional Chinese percussion programme to promote and preserve traditional Chinese percussion at SOAS. In this year, She was invited and started teaching and directing Chinese music ensemble in University of Birmingham. At same time, she was featured on the front cover of China Music Life magazine and in iD China Magzinge in 2017. Most recently, she was invited by Boston Modern Orchestra Project（BMOP）, featured as soloist in a world premiere of new percussion concerto The Legend of Cowherd and Weaver Girl written expressly for her by Anthony Paul De Ritis in Boston, US. The recording will be released in late 2018 on BMOP’s record label, BMOP/sound.
Since 2008, at the invitation of Grammy and Oscar winner, world renowned composer and conductor Tan Dun, Beibei was featured as soloist in his Organic Music Trilogy (Water Concerto, Paper Concerto and Earth Concerto), premiered the Earth Concerto at 2009 Grafenegg Music Festival in Austria with world renowned conductor Kristjan Järvi and Tonkünstler-Orchester. Beibei has embarked upon a number of hugely successful international tours featured as soloist at many international music festivals, including the Edinburgh International Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Bach Academy Musikfest Stuttgart, Colour Scape Music Festival, collaborating with numerous leading Orchestras worldwide, including: the BBC Symphony Orchestra (UK),China Philharmonic, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Germany),Orchestra dell’ Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Italy) the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Canada), New Japan Philharmonic, BMOP etc, as well as conductors, including:
Kent Nagano, Tan Dun, Kristjan Järvi, Muhai Tang, Gil Rose etc.
Beibei is also an active world music researcher. She travels worldwide studying and collecting ethnic music ,including traditional percussion and dance ANHUI FLOWER-DRUM LANTERNS in China, Indian tabla, middle-east percussion, Irish Bodhran, Brazilian percussion, Japanese Taiko, Korean traditional percussion. Since 2011 ,She was invited by Mrs.Merhi Mardashahi ,president of Dialogue Among Civilizations Association, featured as one of the soloist representing China ,toured internationally in World Orchestra of UNESCO. In 2017, Beibei was invited by world-renowned conductor Kristjan Järvi, collaborating with his ABSOLUTE ENSEMBLE ,Korean traditional music legendary master drummer Kim Deok Soo and Korean Ensemble Sinawi to give concert for PyeongChang Winter Olympics. In 2018 , She was invited by world renowned conductor Maestro Muhai Tang ,joining in Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, touring in the most iconic concert halls across Europe, including Barbican Centre(London), Berliner Philharmonie(Berlin), Elbphilharmonie(Hamburg) , BOZAR (Brussels), etc. Most recently , she was invited by Belgium based Taiko group Araumi Daiko again, collaborating with Japanese artists from Kodo, touring Belgium.
Beibei is a passionate composer and performs her own original composition in recitals and concerts across Europe. Her multi-percussion set up solo NOISY WORLD was premiered in Nantes ,France in 2016. Her multi-percussion solo DRUM DANCE was premiered in Chemnitz ,Germany in 2016. Her musical installation KILLING PIANO was collaborating with renowned pianist Belle Chen, premiered in 2016 in London. Her multimedia music theater WU XING were touring cross UK, China and Korea in 2017. Her original composition DOUBLE HAPPINESS for percussion duo was broadcasted on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction in 2018. Most recently, She was commissioned by Shanghai Fashion Week, writing film score for THE CITY-film installation,collaborated with producer/director Zhao Tong from HEXAGON COLLECTIVE and choreographer and dancer/model Anna Herrman,
