FUAIM Concert - Gao Yanming - 21/03/25, 1:10pm, Aula Maxima, UCC

17 Jan 2025

Happening On 21/03/2025

Gao Yanming has received a Master's degree in Pipa Performance from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing where she studied on a full national scholarship under renowned pipa master Prof. Fan Wei. Currently a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at University College Cork (supervisor, Prof. Jonathan Stock), her research topic is tracing a new history of the Pinghu Pipa School, a traditional pipa lineage originating from Pinghu City, China, in the 19th century. Yanming is a pipa instructor in the Department of Music at Zhejiang International Studies University, executive director of the Pipa Professional Committee of Zhejiang Musicians Association, China, and was designated by the Beijing Arts Foundation a pipa performing talent of the Pinghu Pipa School.

As a pipa performer, Yanming has held a number of solo recitals and has been invited to perform in numerous venues and prestigious musical events at home and abroad, including the Chinese First National Music Festival, the South Korea-China Cultural Exchange Festival, and the First Hong Kong Chinese Culture Festival. In September 2022, she performed the traditional Chinese piece "Dance of the Yi People" at the Other Voices music festival in Ireland and graced the cover of the Irish Examiner, with Philip King highlighting her performance in his program South Wind Blows on RTÉ Radio 1. Other Voices officially described her performance as ‘jaw-dropping.’ Yanming was a finalist in the Eighth China Music ‘Golden Bell Award’ Pipa Competition, the highest professional-level contest in the field of Chinese music, won the Fourth Hong Kong International Youth Folk Instrumental Competition, and received the Gold and Second Prizes respectively in the Professional and Virtuoso categories of the Sino-Foreign Folk Music Exchanges Competition among other domestic and international awards.

Rhoda Dullea accompanies Yanming on piano.

Rhoda Dullea is a pianist and lecturer in Musicianship and Academic Studies at MTU Cork School of Music. She has worked as an accompanist and chamber musician in Cork and surrounding areas for many years, and has performed with prominent Irish soloists, including violinists Keith Pascoe and Ioana Petcu, sopranos Cara O’Sullivan and Mary Hegarty, as well as numerous Cork choirs, and local performing arts companies (Opera 2005, Corcadorca Theatre Company). She is also an organist and has acted as organist and director of music for the Gregorian Schola at Saints Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork, since 2018. As organist, Rhoda has also performed several live film scores by composers Linda and Irene Buckley, most recently their score for Nosferatu at the Fastnet Film Festival (May 2024). Rhoda completed her PhD in UCC in 2005, as well as a Masters in Arts, Culture and Education at University of Cambridge in 2014. She has published research in performance studies and education and outreach in the performing arts.