Martin Li

    martin.mouse@163.com

    A MASTER of traditional Chinese music, Fang Jinlong, will stage seven concerts with musician friends at Shenzhen Concert Hall in Futian District between this month and December.

    Fang is a 50-year-old Anhui Province native and one of China’s top players of the four-stringed Chinese lute. Fang also is good at playing various other traditional Chinese instruments, including some that have been lost in most of China.

    “My musician friends and I will play about 100 different instruments at the concerts,” Fang said at a press conference Tuesday.

    Among those instruments are the pipa, Chinese zither, ocarina, xun — an ancient Chinese vessel flute — and shakuhachi, or chiba in Chinese, a vertical bamboo flute with five holes that was introduced into Japan from China some 1,300 years ago.

    “I recently played several ancient Chinese instruments in the United States and many American audience members cried after hearing the beautiful sounds of the ancient instruments,” Fang said. “They said the sounds had touched their hearts.

    “However, people in China are enthusiastic about Western instruments and music, such as the piano and symphonies,” he continued. “What I’m doing is to raise people’s awareness of traditional Chinese music.”

    He likened that effort to preserving his home country’s heritage.

    “Musical instruments have histories of about 9,000 years in China, and deserve to be recognized as great inventions in China,” Fang said.

    Futian’s cultural fund is supporting Fang’s concerts. Tickets will cost 80 yuan (US$13) to 280 yuan, cheaper than tickets for Fang’s commercial performances.

    The minimum ticket price for Fang’s concert in Guangzhou in 2011 was 380 yuan.

    “We will donate part of the income from the concerts to earthquake-hit Ya’an in Sichuan Province,” Fang said.

    The first of Fang’s seven Futian concerts is Saturday.

    In addition to the shows at Shenzhen Concert Hall, Fang will also collaborate with friends to hold six more concerts in Futian this year.

    Fang is Futian’s seventh signed celebrity. The district established a special 100-million-yuan fund last year to link big names in cultural and athletic fields with the district, in efforts to raise the district’s profile through various collaborations.

    Fang plans to set up a personal music studio in Futian to research and promote folk music.

    The district’s other signed celebrities include piano star Lang Lang, basketball player Yi Jianlian and cultural scholar Wang Luxiang.

    Tickets: 80-280 yuan

    Time: 8 p.m., May 11 and 17, June 8 and 29, Nov. 9, Dec. 7 and 14

    Tel: 8284-1888

    Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall, intersection of Hongli Road and Yitian Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路和益田路交汇处深圳音乐厅)

    Buses: N9, 15, 25, 35, 38, 41, 54, 60, 65, 71, K105, 107, 108, 111, 215, 228, 235, 236, 237

    Metro: Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit C or D