CONCERT PIANIST DI XIAO, BIOGRAPHY

 

Abstract

Chinese Concert Pianist Di Xiao began her musical studies at the age of four, subsequently studying at Guangzhou Conservatory, the Odessa Conservatoire, under the eminent Professors A. M. Bougaevski and G. V. Popova, and later at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under Professor QiFang Li. She graduated from Beijing with one of the highest marks in the history of the Conservatory.  Later she was awarded a full scholarship by Birmingham Conservatoire which enabled her to travel to England to continue her studies under Professors Mark Racz, now Deputy Principle at The Royal Academy of Music London, and Malcolm Wilson. She graduated with distinction in 2006 winning a number of prizes along the way.

Di Xiao has recently released her first album ‘Di Xiao Presents’ which is being played regularly on European radio stations including BBC Radio 3.  During the 2008/09 season she thrilled audiences across Europe on her Rising Star Tour which took her to 12 of the worlds most prestigious concert halls; Athens Megaron, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Barcelona L’Auditori, Brussels Bozar, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Salzburg Mozartium, Wien Konzerthaus, Stockholm Konserthuset, Köln Philharmonie, Birmingham Town Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall.  Later the same year Ms Xiao performed in Singapore and India for the Bremen Musikfest.

Biography 

Di Xiao won numerous prizes and competitions at an early age, among them first prize in the Luo Shi Trophy Competition in 1990 and Most Outstanding Young Musician of Guangdong Province Award in 1996. She has been invited to perform as a soloist in many countries including China, Malaysia, Ukraine and the UK. In 1997 she played Chengzong Yin’s Yellow River Piano Concerto in Kuala Lumpur and Penang for the Malaysian Royal Family, which drew much praise from the press and critics. In her native country, she has appeared the Beijing Concert Hall and a number of other important venues across the country.

 

In the UK Di Xiao has performed at a number of prestigious venues and events including Birmingham Symphony Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, Warwick Arts Centre, the Buxton Arts Festival, Stratford Music Festival, and Leamington Music Festival. Di Xiao’s concert performances have received much acclaim in the UK. Her debut at Symphony Hall Birmingham in January 2006 was described by the UK Chinese Times as “A stunning concert!” and an early performance of the Schumann Concerto prompted The Birmingham Post to describe her as “a pianist of awesome gifts …her imperious opening flourish announced a capacity for full, rich chording. But there was also flowing, rippling figuration as she revealed her instinctive grasp of this wonderful work. In her graceful, dancing finale it was easy to imagine Clara Schumann at the keyboard, Di Xiao’s profile and demeanour uncannily close to those of the great lady herself.”

 

In July 2007 she took first prize at the Brant International Piano Competition which led to her selection for the Rising Star series 08/09.  During this tour She thrilled audiences across Europe at 12 of the worlds most prestigious concert halls; Athens Megaron, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Barcelona L’Auditori, Brussels Bozar, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Salzburg Mozartium, Wien Konzerthaus, Stockholm Konserthuset, Köln Philharmonie, Birmingham Town Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall.  Her recitals at Athens, Barcelona, Hamburg, Luxembourg and Amsterdam were recorded and continue to delight audiences through the media of radio.

 

Di Xiao’s truly inspiring performances stem from her equal mastery of technique, artistry and temperament. She forms a strong bond with audiences everywhere and exudes a special quality and integrity in her music making. However, she continues her quest for perfection and strives continually for self improvement. In June 2006, she had the honour of a personal master-class with Alfred Brendel on Beethoven’s E major Sonata Op. 109, during which he commented on her “very clear mind and excellent fingers!”

 

Her repertoire reflects a broad spectrum of interests with a wide range of musical styles ranging from the works of Beethoven and Mozart to Ravel and Messiaen. She has a keen interest in Chinese classical folk music and in contemporary piano works by the new generation of Chinese composers. She seeks tirelessly for new and innovative ways to bring these works to a wider audience. Di Xiao aspires to be an international ambassador for the piano, combining both Chinese and Western repertoire in the programming of her concerts, thereby creating a bridge between two cultures.

 

Ecstasy Records 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May I count the times you and I have heard “Practice makes perfect”? It’s stressed so often how practice is vital in learning and improving your musical skills on any instrument including the guitar. But how many days out of the week do you actually feel like practicing? Maybe a couple, maybe every day, maybe even only once a month. So how do you make yourself more prone to practice more often?

You decide to discipline yourself to.

Now when you hear the word “discipline” I’m not talking about a belt to the ass. I’m talking about self-discipline.

Self-discipline is the willing mechanism to make yourself improve on whatever it is you are doing. It plays a vital part in your musicianship, and if you are real about wanting to be a good musician, this is the heart and soul of your way to be one. It is the process of making the habit and second nature actions to get you where you want to go. In the case of learning to play the guitar, it is not just about motivation and passion. Although those are very important aspects of practice and improvement, they are completely useless and non-existant without having the self-dicipline to stick with it.

When you decided you wanted to play the guitar (or whatever instrument it was you decided on), you might’ve been absolutely passionate about the idea at that time. Some of us are naturally so fascinated by music with every bone in our body that the discipline to stick with it comes second nature. But not all of us are like this. Some of us are just curious about what it might be like to go out and buy a guitar and watch a video and see if we like it. In the latter case, people usually end up falling off the ladder early in the round when they are just starting. Sometimes we don’t have the time to play, or we decide that we feel it is more frustrating work than any enjoyment we expected to get from it. By deciding to use self-discipline to dedicate yourself to it, all of these obsticles will be eliminated and you will find yourself becoming more and more developed into your practice.

Developing Musical Discipline

Disciplining yourself to be dedicated to your instrument begins with at least four different steps:

Accepting musicianship

Adopting your instrument

Creating a routine

Joining other musicians

These are the four that I picked out. Other guitar teachers might mention these and others, or maybe use a different approach altogether. For the record, there is not only one right approach, but this is the approach that I brought myself up on as I improved my guitar playing.

1. Accepting Musicianship

Bear in mind, this blog site is aimed at those who deeply WANT to be really great and dedicated musicians. If this is not what you want, reading this will probably just be a waste of your time and you wont get much out of it. If you’re unsure as to whether or not you really want to, reading this entry may very well help you begin to decide. The fact is, if you actually expect to get anywhere on the guitar, you have to actually WANT to. If you expect to be an exceptional musician, it’s not going to work by making it a small side chore throughout the span of a year. Amateurs who decide to make their practice something they just do when they are bored never get anywhere. You need to be clear about a few things here: first, that you really want to be a great musician, not that you just want to be someone who just knows how to play.

Before you really start dedicating your time and effort to practice, take some time to really think about the idea of YOU being a great musician. Imagine it in your head, swirl it around, really let it sink in everything that it will mean for you wield this skill. Don’t just think about the idea of getting rich and getting laid. DO NOT let your mind become slave to that idea. This is about what music itself means to you. Pop in your favorite artist, put on some headphones, close your eyes and absorb every ounce of feeling from the music. Absorb its essence and let it teach you emotioanlly and spiritually what it is about playing music that empowers you internally and externally. This is what its all about. You have to let this energy surge and build up. It should open your mind and your heart to completely and genuinely want and long to speak out.

By this time, if you have really let it sink in, you’ll know for sure if you are deeply ready to dedicate yourself to this future of creating music. Keep in mind the idea that this feeling that hit you is exacly what you will one day give to others.

2. Adopting your Instrument

The previous step, however long it takes, will motivate you on a number of different levels. If you didn’t have a guitar at one point, it can push you to go out and buy one. Frankly, having your own guitar is the absolute first essential to everything else. How could you properly learn to play guitar if you’re always having to borrow somebody elses?

Having your own guitar is like having your own best friend who lives with you every day. The awesome thing about this best friend is that they don’t eat your food, mess your house up, spend your money, or get on your nerves in the ways that an actual roommate might. This guitar is not only going to be your best friend but it is going to be a part of you, physically, mentally, and emotionally. It is like a soldiers gun in the heat of battle. It will never leave your side, it will never cheat on you, and it will never lie to you. It is your baby. Give her/him a name. Clean it, take care of it. If it is your first guitar, it should be immortalized even after you don’t have it anymore. My first guitar was a Harmony electric. It was just about the only real friend I had for years, and it was more dedicated to me than just about any friend I know of to this day.

3. Creating a Routine

The next essential step is the meat and potatoes of disciplining yourself to play. Practicing is not just about picking up a guitar and spending a half hour to an hour of some day out of the week to get a little better at what you’ve most recently learned, whether it be a cover song, a scale, a chord, or a picking technique. Just like any other kind of practice in any other field, your mind and your body has to adapt to it. Your fingers are going to stretch, calisses on their tips are going to form, and mentally, your brain is going to go through a big change in function as well. Playing most instruments (guitar, piano, etc), requires bimanual hand movement which requires more use of certain parts of the brain that you never, or much less frequently used before. For example, on the guitar, if you are right handed, you will be using your left hand eventually as a prime focus for traveling the fret board, while your right hand moves in the background to pluck the strings. In this way, your practicing routine is absolutely vital for exercising your brain to adapt to bimanual usage of your hands.

Probably the best guitar student I ever had, had one of the most dedicated routines I’ve yet to see in anyone I’ve taught. They spent at least half of every day to their practice. Every morning they would open their eyes, stretch, get out of bed and go strait to their guitar to warm up their fingers on the guitar before they even ate breakfast. After 30 minutes of warming up his fingers, he would put the guitar down, go eat breakfast, come back, and begin reviewing every single cover song he’d learned since he began playing the guitar. Afterward he would practice scales and chord changes he had learned both from me and from the cover songs he had reviewed. Finally, he would pick out one or more new cover songs to learn, get out his tablature books and CD’s, and spend the next hour or more learning them. This went on for an entire summer (since he was out of school and playing the guitar interested him more than sitting around with friends most of the time). The great thing about it was it never had one interruption in it. Today he plays twice as good as I do! Later in future entries, I will lay out some good templates of routine for different kinds of people who have different schedules of their day.

4. Joining other Musicians

It is said that with anything you want to absorb, using the people around you gives you the best support for it than anything else. Think about religion and church gatherings. Think about study groups in school. Surrounding yourself with people who are also learning what you are learning is one of the best ways to stay motivated and learn new things. (Just stay away from the evil cults The best people to surround yourself with are those who are much better than you. It’s a proven fact that the more one absorbs information from being around an expert of what they are learning, the faster they open up to, and learn it themselves. Also, these people are great mentors for you to look up to. Never under estimate the influence of people. Just be sure that they are not people who are a bad influence otherwise. If they are into drugs and alcohol and have a larger problem with managing themselves than they are good at being a decent influence to those around them, they are most likely not who you want to be around. If you want to stay dedicated to your musicianship with no distractions, the best thing to do is surround yourself with people who will ONLY provide that kind of support for you if anything.

Being a growing musician should not be mistaken as a pass-time hobby. The better the musician you want to be, the more drenched in music your everyday life should be. Who’s ever heard of the guitarist who never listens to other artists more than once a week? If you really want to be good at it, you have to eliminate all unsureness about it and just decide to emerse yourself in it. If you want to enjoy it, make sure your guitar is one that will not only provide the best exercise for your fingers, but also the best sound. If you want to understand what it is you want to play, listen to music all the time. Study it inside and out. When you practice, make it a part of your day that must exist for your day to be complete. Go out and talk to others who make it a regular part of their day, whether its over an interenet forum, or in your own neighborhood. Whatever you do, adopt every aspect of your playing into every fiber of your being. The discipline of playing your instrument will come more naturally with each of these aspects you accept to focus on.

The point of this article is that if you are going to spend any time trying to learn whatever instrument you are learning, you might as well make it worth as much of your attention as possible. That is the key to becoming a great musician.

There is really nothing in the world like music. There have been studies to show the amazing effect that is has on the human brain, such as the link between music and spatial intelligence. The only thing that can compare with listening to music is the ability to make our own music.

Not everyone is as gifted as the rest when it comes to playing music. Not all of us have the time, or want to invest the time in learning to play a complicated instrument such as the piano. That does not mean that we don’t all want to be able to play an instrument. There are easy musical instruments that you can learn to play quickly. Here are eight:

1. Drums. If you have a pretty good sense of rhythm, drums are a fairly easy musical instrument that you can learn to play quickly. You won’t be great, but you can sure have fun. There are many kinds of drums, from the congo drum to the high hat to the bass drum to the snare drum. Drums, along with the tambourine, belong to the percussion family. Which means the hitting of one body against another; the drum is also played with the hands or a person can use one to two sticks. It is just a matter of counting beats as you play, either mechanically or by feeling the beat.

2. Tambourines. This easy musical instrument is made up of a shallow hand held drum, usually made from a circular piece of wood and calf skin or plastic that is stretched across the top. You play it with your hands, stroking or shaking the jingle or rubbing, shaking or striking the drum head with your knuckles. Play what feels good.

3. Bongos. Another percussion instrument that is easy to learn to play are the bongos. Bongos are a type of drum made up of two sections, one of which is larger then the other. The drums are attached to one another. Played by placing the bongos between the knees, they produce a high pitched sound. When the bongos are placed between the knees correctly, the larger drum will be to the right. Traditionally, they are played by striking the tops with your fingers and palms. There are times when the bongos are played with sticks and brushes. It is possible to alter the sound from the bongos by placing one hand on the top of the drum and then beat it with the other hand.

4. Comb buzzer. We can look at a couple wind instruments that are also easy musical instruments that you can learn to play quickly. One of my favorites would be the comb buzzer. This instrument is truly one anyone that can breathe can play. It is not only easy; you can make it at home. You take a pocket comb and tissue paper. Hold the tissue paper against the comb and hum through the tissue paper. This produces a buzzing sound and it tickles the lips.

5. Kazoo. If you are having fun with the comb buzzer, then try the kazoo. The kazoo is also a fun instrument that is played by humming. The kazoo adds a humming noise. People play the kazoo by closing your lips around the kazoo and singing into it. Most people that try to hum into the kazoo are not very successful. But if you sing into it, for example, repeating the word do, do, do, do in to the kazoo you get that wonderful humming sound.

6. Recorder. The next step up from the kazoo, is the recorder. It is a fun and easy to learn instrument that you can learn to play quickly. To play the recorder, you hold it outward from your lips, unlike the traditional flute that is held sideways. You then blow or breath, really, into the recorder, and the pitch or note that is played varies by the open finger holes. You can use all parts of your mouth to manipulate the sound from the recorder. In particular, use the tongue and the diaphragm to help control air flow, hence lengthening the time a note is held and how many different notes are played on a breath. Quality recorders come in many sizes and are made of wood. There are also plastic recorders, used widely in schools, and sometimes also known as a “tonette”. Tin whistles and ocarinas are similar types of recorders.

7. Xylophone. Often used in the orchestra as a serious instrument, the xylophone is a like a piano keyboard that you strike with mallets. With the larger, lower-sounding bars on the left, the notes of the xylophone are laid out much like a piano keyboard. Striking the bars with hard mallets produces a bright, sharp sound. Xylophones made of wood can be very expensive, but for fun and quick learning, a small xylophone made of metal or metal and plastic is ideal, and are used in many schools.

8. Autoharp. The autoharp is a musical instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers which, when depressed, mute all the strings other than those that form the chord you want to play. The autoharp is not really a harp at all, but in reality is a zither.

As you can see, just because you are limited on time or possibly ability does not mean that you can not play an instrument for your own enjoyment. There are easy musical instruments that you can learn to play quickly. Percussion instruments and wind instruments make for easy learning and quick fun. Enjoy the benefits of making music and find a new talent or at least a new hobby.

Jazz is an American art form whose roots date back to the mid-19th century slave songs and chants. The early 20th century saw the art form blossom as instrumental music in the southern United States, mainly along the Mississippi river and specifically New Orleans, Louisiana.

Early instrumental jazz combos of New Orleans varied in instrumentation. More often than not, these early jazz groups generally consisted of trumpet, clarinet, trombone, tuba and drums. This instrumentation became what is known as the “dixieland” combo, making its way up the Mississippi river to Chicago where the music became popularized by jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong.

Dixieland combos can be thought of as groups that play “polyphonic” improvisational music. Each instrument is independent of every other instrument, with each player creating separate musical improvisations based on known melodies, or “tunes” of the day.

The players of these early jazz combos each had a separate role within the group. The trumpet player was depended upon to state the melody of the song, while the clarinet would improvise complex lines above him. The trombonists role was to improvise or “fill in” the middle register with lines and notes that were essential to the chord changes of the song itself. The tuba player (or bass player) generally laid down root notes (and 5ths) of each chord on beats 1 and 3 of each measure. The tuba served as the harmonic anchor for the group. Lastly, it was the drummers role to keep everyone together by keeping a steady beat throughout the entirety of the song.

As jazz music developed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, jazz combo instrumentation began to become more standardized. The jazz “quintet” and “sextet” became very popular during this time. The quintet consisted of trumpet and alto (or tenor) sax as the main melodic instruments while the rhythm section (piano, bass and drums) took care of rhythm and harmony.

The sextet added a trombone to form what essentially was a three horn front line, with rhythm section accompaniment. The extra melodic instrument of the sextet made it possible for the horns to add more harmonic depth to the sound of the group. Each instrument had a role not only as a melodic voice, but also as an integral component of the harmonic structure as well.

Modern jazz combos consist of a variety of instrumentation – 4, 5 horn combos are common place. As the group grows in size however, the name “combo” is replaced by “band” or “little big band”.

The jazz combo has provided a musical and creative outlet for countless musicians over the last 100 years. The jazz combo continues to provide jazz musicians the opportunity to work together to make music not only as a group but also to develop their own voice as individual jazz improvisers. It is, and probably always will be, the perfect vehicle for learning the art of jazz improvisation.

1. Non organic food has a less nutritional value.

Most of the food we purchase from the supermarket is processed. It goes through industrial processes, and high-level temperatures heating.

These processes wipe out the largest part of the vitamins, minerals and fiber in our food.

The rest of the vitamins and natural resources are not sufficient for the process of life so our body “robs” several of the organs, like the liver or the brain, to make up for the missing nutrients. The “pillaging” of materials causes the weakening of essential organs of the body and leads as anticipated to the accelerating of disease and old age. Eating organic ensures you obtain all of the vitamins your food has to offer.

2. Eating organic does not contain pesticides.

Conventional cultivation uses more than 400 separate chemicals, and on occasion the same vegetable goes through several sprayings with dozens of types of pesticides.  For instance, Phosphates. This is a material proved to harm men’s fertility and is associated with chronic fatigue syndrome and Parkinson’s.

Research conducted by the British government found that a combination of pesticides can be unsafe to our body. Organic supervision prohibits the use of artificial pesticides. Eating organic helps reduce the amount of of pesticides in our bodies significantly (Baker et al., 2002).

3.  Eating organic is liberated of artificial food coloring

The food industry uses food coloring to get the produce loooking fresher and award it a more alluring look. Synthetic food coloring can cause different side-effects, mild and more serious ones. An illustration of this is a material marked on several food packaging – E102. You can mostly locate it in noodles, crackers and beverages. It has been associated with allergic reactions, headaches, asthma and hyperactivity in children (Ward et al., 1990). Eating organic will eliminate artificial food coloring from your food.

4. No genetic engineering.

 Eating organic does not contain genetically engineered products.

5. Eating organic does not contain antibiotics.

The World Health Organization (WHO) prohibits the use of antibiotics in organic meat. This is for the reason that recently there is common worry that antibiotic residues in meat or dairy products and may perhaps cause a person to be unaffected by to antibiotics, and in consequence reduce its effectiveness in treating human diseases (World health organization, 1997).    



6. Eating organic takes care of the Environment and animal welfare.

Pesticides not just leave residues of toxins in our bodies, the soil and our water, but furthermore in the bodies of animals. Eating organic, which does not contain pesticides, integrates with nature and organic growing methods do not spoil nature – just contributes to it. The Animals are growth in a natural method that suits their needs.