Silk and Bamboo Ensemble - Equator Festival

Equator 2012 series returns to Southbank’s Purcell Room on June 13th to present the world renowned Silk & Bamboo (sizhu) Ensemble.

The string and wind group is based in the UK and performs traditional Chinese music often including strings such as erhu and gaohu fiddles, pipa and yueqin lutes and the yangqin dulcimer as well as the dizi flute, sheng mouth-organ and percussion instruments such as the ban and gu clapper and drums.

The group feature expert musicians classically trained in China including the celebrated pipa virtuoso and scholar Cheng Yu on the pipa (4-stringed lute) and internationally renowned masters of the erhu (2-stringed fiddle), yangqin (hammered dulcimer) and guzheng (21-stringed zither) and dizi (bamboo flutes).

"...perfect, vibrant performances... technical perfection and brilliant playing..." Songlines.

The ensemble gained its reputation as “a leading Chinese music group in Europe” with consistent excellence that shined on many stages in the UK, Europe and beyond. They have published several CDs and featured on BBC Radio 3 and have delivered numerous quality tailor-made educational programmes to schools and other sectors. The ensemble has performed at a host of prestigious venues and major festivals including Edinburgh, WOMEX (Spain), the WOMAD festival (Sweden, Canada) as well as London’s 2008 Olympic Torch Relay and 2012 Olympiad Festivals.


“amazing timbres and playing techniques... evokes all the nuances of human emotions..." Ethnotempos, France

"a virtuoso ensemble with such an exotic style... brilliant and impressive" The Scotsman