Silk Road Artists

Xu Ke
erhu (b. 1960, China, Japan, United States)

"Throughout my career I have tried to augment my playing on the erhu with
performance techniques from Western music. Ive been inspired by this project to explore the ways in which the musical traditions of countries along the Silk Road, such as Iran and Mongolia, can enhance the erhu repertoire."

Xu Ke is an outstanding contemporary master of the erhu [AR hoo]. In 1982, he graduated with honors from Beijing Central Conservatory where he studied with the master Lan Yusong. He has been a soloist with orchestras in Europe and Asia including the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Russia Philharmonic Orchestra. An accomplished recording artist, he has made numerous solo recordings for BMG and RCA records and has received critical praise in newspapers, magazines and broadcast interviews around the world. He has led workshops at universities as diverse as Tokyo Arts University and Kansas City Conservatory, and was Artist in Residence at the School of Music at Louisiana State University. Xu Ke has significantly enlarged and enriched the erhu repertoire by using techniques derived from Western classical, jazz and folk music.

Xu Ke performs with the Silk Road Ensemble, appears on the album Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet and was featured in the photo exhibit entitled The Silk Road Ensemble: Portraits and Places. Learn more about Xu Ke at his homepage (www.xuke.net).