The Music of Li Jinhui: The Father of Chinese Popular Music

The Huntington Library presents an evening of music by Li Jinhui (1891–1967), featuring concert pianist Jing Ling Tam, pipa and vocal artist, Min Xiao-Fen and the Ron McCurdy Quintet.

The Ron McCurdy Collective will present an evening of music by Li Jinhui, known as the “Father of Chinese popular music”.  The evening will represent a collection of Li Jinhui’s highly popular Chinese folk songs orchestrated for concert piano, pipa and jazz quintet in a multimedia and multicultural setting.  Although during his time, Li Jinhui was a controversial figure with many critics calling his music “vulgar” and “common”, his compositions became the main genre of music in Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1930s and 1940s.  Li’s collaboration with American jazz artist Buck Clayton had a transformative effect on Li’s musical evolution and ushered in an era of “Chinese jazz” which dominated the nightlife scene in nightclubs around Southeast Asia in the 1930’s.  This performance will feature world-renown concert pianist Jing Ling Tam, pipa and vocal artist, Min Xiao-Fen and the Ron McCurdy Quintet.  Scholar and film professor from Indiana University, Stephanie DeBoer designed the video.  Orchestrations and arrangements compiled by Gary Shields and Ron McCurdy.

Open seating; advance tickets required. For tickets, call 626-405-2128.