ONE summer night in 2022, Shenzhen pianist Luo Wei was taking a walk in the garden near her home. The music playing on her phone was ambient and random. Suddenly, she was captivated by a piece of music, which she later found out was called “Oriental” by Spanish composer Enrique Granados, selected from his musical work “Danzas Espanolas” (“Spanish Dances”).

“The music conjured an image of a Chinese pavilion, where the sun had just come up and the early morning dew was resting on the green leaves. It is very beautiful and imaginative. I was intrigued,” says Luo.

Her fascination with the piece didn’t stop there. It inspired the young pianist’s latest album, “Gazing,” and the supporting nationwide tour, called “Gazing Eastwards,” which kicked off July 28 in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, and will run until 2024. The tour will take her to numerous cities, including Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

For the new album, Luo recorded pieces that are rarely performed, such as Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz’s “Iberia, Book I (T. 105)” and “Spanish Suite No. 1, Op. 47” and Russian composer Mily Balakirev’s “Islamey, Oriental Fantasy.” She also plays “Clair de Lune” by French composer Claude Debussy. Granados’ “Oriental” is also featured on the album.

“All the music and composers featured on the album were about, and inspired by, the concept of ‘Oriental.’ I call the album ‘Gazing’ because the music is by Western composers who were inspired by ‘Oriental’ themes, but from afar,” says Luo.

For the tour, besides playing pieces from the album, Luo also includes composer Yao Chen’s piece, “Five Colors,” in which the composer uses the five-tune system in Chinese music scales. Each part of the piece reflects the collision between the East and the West. “The album reflects how Western composers see the East as being full of mystery. By having Yao’s ‘Five Colors’ during the tour, it’s like a conversation between the East and the West,” says Luo.

The pianist also wrote a poem, titled “The Moment Our Eyes Meet (Granada Fantasy),” which was inspired by Albeniz’s “Granada,” the composer’s tribute to the city in Spain. “All these pieces conjure up images, which is very poetic, and I want to write poems for each of them,” adds Luo.

To launch the album, Luo appeared at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing on July 22. The album is being released under the NCPA Classics label and was recorded at the center several months ago. Luo also invited veteran Chinese composer Guo Wenjing, Chinese poets Ouyang Jianghe and Xi Chuan.

“Poems bring unlimited inspiration to me. As a composer, I enjoy reading poems. Luo wrote poems for the music works she plays, which brings a new dimension to them and allows the audience to understand them from a fresh perspective,” says Guo, who once composed a five-act opera, called “Poet Li Bai,” about the Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet. One of his symphonies, titled “Shu Dao Nan,” was inspired and named after Li’s poem of the same title.

Born and raised in Shenzhen, Luo gave her piano debut in Hong Kong at age 6. A winner of numerous competitions in China, Luo also claimed first prize in the 11th Chopin International Competition for Young Pianists in Poland and the Second Rachmaninov International Piano Competition for Young Pianists in Frankfurt, both in 2010. In 2012, at age 13, she was accepted to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in the United States, where she studied with Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald.

“I was the youngest in the class and I tried to open myself up as much as possible to absorb everything,” says Luo, recalling her early days at the Curtis Institute of Music. At 16, Luo was signed by Decca Gold, a label of the Universal Music Group, and in 2019, she released her eponymous debut album, featuring music by Maurice Ravel, Dmitri Shostakovich, Joseph Haydn and Sergey Prokofiev. The album made the 19-year-old Luo a rising star in the classical music world.

“Luo is a young lady now, who deserves to go very far. She is not only a wonderful musical powerhouse, but a brilliant thinker, who goes way beyond the score and brings her own ideas to everything she approaches,” said Graffman in an interview in 2019.

“I grew up with Chinese culture. Later I came to the U.S. and performed around Europe, which allowed me to learn about Western culture. Both of them affect me and inspire me to think,” says Luo, who now splits her time between Shenzhen and Philadelphia.

The young pianist also loves theater, especially improvisational theater, and received acting training. In April, she performed with contemporary dancer-choreographer Zach Gonder in New York in a theater production, combining music, poetry, dance and installation art. Luo is trying to bring that production to China next year.

“I enjoy performing very much. Acting and playing piano both allow me to learn about the stage and the audience. I would like to expand my vision of performing onstage and I want to bring a different experience to the audience,” says Luo.

(China Daily)