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Oriental Breeze

Members 乐手

Music brings us together.

Oriental Breeze with their instruments at St Paul's Church, Sale, February 2019

The band

In alphabetical order of surname

Portrait of Yan Williams

Percussion

  • Yan Williams 李妍
  • Zhuang Kang 康庄
  • Min Wu 伍敏
  • Hongye Zheng 郑宏业
  • Qijun Zhang 张其军

The instruments

Silk (丝) for the strings and bamboo (竹) for the flutes. As well as these we use cello, guitar and percussion.

Erhu 二胡
Two strings, played with a bow that passes between them. The player rests it upright on the knee. It is often called the Chinese violin.
Pipa 琵琶
A four-stringed lute held upright and played with picks taped to the fingertips.
Guzheng 古筝
A long zither, usually with 21 strings, each on its own movable bridge. The left hand presses the strings to bend the notes.
Yangqin 扬琴
A hammered dulcimer, played with two thin bamboo beaters.
Zhongruan 中阮
A round lute with a long neck. It covers the middle and lower parts.
Liuqin 柳琴
A small lute, pitched higher than the pipa.
Dizi 笛子
A bamboo flute held sideways. A thin membrane over one hole gives it a slight buzz.
Xiao 箫
A bamboo flute held upright and blown from the end. Quieter and lower than the dizi.

Photos

Some of the group together, and audiences having a go at the end of our concerts.

Joining

If you play a Chinese instrument and would like to join us, get in touch and tell us what you play.