Wu Wei

Wu Wei’s path as a Chinese sheng player has been defined by his readiness to work alongside Western composers and musicians, resulting in numerous recordings made in Germany, the country he now calls home. Born April 29, 1970, in Gaoyou, China, he trained on the sheng, the large free-reed Chinese mouth organ, at the Shanghai Conservatory before launching his professional activity in 1993 with the Chinese Music Orchestra in Shanghai. A pivotal development occurred in 1995 when he received a four-year scholarship from the DAAD and the FNS, allowing him to pursue studies in Berlin, the city where he continues to reside while also holding a teaching post at the Shanghai Conservatory. His first album, Sheng Organ for the Mouth, appeared in 1998, followed in 2000 by Mouth Organ: Trad Chinese/Sheng.

Toward the end of the 2000s, Wu Wei began drawing commissions from Western composers seeking to create concertos for the instrument. An early example was Huang Ruo’s The Color of Yellow in 2007; three additional concertos came from the Korean composer Unsuk Chin, who lives in Germany. He has premiered more than 300 pieces, among them 20 concertos for sheng and orchestra, and has composed numerous works for the sheng himself. His performances have included appearances with leading European and North American ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Kent Nagano, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, the BBC Symphony led by Ilan Volkov, and the New York Philharmonic directed by Susanna Mälkki.

In 2014 he recorded three concertos by Unsuk Chin for Deutsche Grammophon with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung, later adding releases on the Wergo and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi labels. The children’s album Le sheng amoureux, issued in 2015, paired him with actress Karine Viard, while the 2019 release Silk Baroque featured the ensemble Holland Baroque on PentaTone Classics. In 2024 he recorded composer Rolf Wallin’s sheng concerto Five Seasons for the Ondine label with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.