Thursday, October 16, 2008

Qiu Xia He

Qiu Xia He is a Chinese ''pipa'' player.

Qiu Xia was born in Baoji, Shaanxi, China and she studied at the Xi'an Academy of Music. After graduating, she taught at the academy and toured with the Shaanxi Music and Dance Troupe. In 1989, she went to Canada, and settled in Vancouver, British Columbia. Qiu Xia was a founding member of the cross-cultural ensemble ASZA, which she left in 2001. As well, she founded the Vancouver based world music group, Silk Road Music. Her first recording with that group, entitled ''Endless'', was nominated for a Juno Award. Her CD ''Autumn Cloud'' was nominated for two Canadian Folk Music Awards. The group has performed on CBC Radio 2.

Qiu Xia is married to the Montreal-born guitarist Andre Thibault. Now living in Vancouver, Thibault founded the group Jou Tou, in which Qiu Xia plays pipa and other instruments. Thibault also plays in Silk Road Music with Qiu Xia. Qiu Xia and Thibault often tour as a smaller version of Silk Road called the Silk Road Duo.

She also plays the ''guqin''.

Qiu Xia also performs from time to time with the Brazilian guitarist Celso Machado.

In addition to the ''pipa'', she also plays the ''ruan'', sings, and plays percussion.

Discography


*1995 - ''ASZA''
*1998 - ''Jongo LĂȘ''
*2000 - ''Endless''
*2001 - ''Village Tales''
*2002 - ''Ju Tou''
*2006 - ''Autumn Cloud''

Listening


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