Su-a Lee

You may recall my recent Blip about British folk musician Luke Daniels and his Kaleidoscope: Music Memes project, in which he’s worked with musicians from diverse cultural and musical backgrounds to create something uniquely beautiful www.blipfoto.com/entry/2573844375767351659

Well, tonight Luke was back at the Philharmonic Music Room to complete the project in the company of 3 phenomenal musicians.

Shu Jiang is an ethnomusicologist from China who’s an expert Chinese zither player. I was entranced by her command of the 21-stringed zheng!

Rihab Azar is from Homs, in Syria and is the first woman oudist to perform with the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music. She moved to the UK under the Migrant Talent Scheme and has performed with the London Sinfonietta amongst others. I think she’s destined for great things!

Sadly, South African cellist Abel Selaocoe (who featured in my previous Blip) was unable to perform with the quartet tonight but his place was filled with considerable panache by today’s Blip subject, Korean-born British cellist, Su-a Lee (I’ve included pictures of the other musicians in my Extras).

Su-a is the assistant Principal Cellist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a founding member of Mr McFalls Chamber but her musical interests and collaborations go way beyond the classical canon. Today was only the second day she’d played with the other musicians but you’d never have guessed it! She blended in perfectly on the collaborative tunes and captivated the audience with her solo rendition of Bach’s Cello Suite No.1 in G major, followed by a show-stopping performance of ‘Over The Rainbow’ on the musical saw! Yes, indeed.

Check out this interview with her if you’d like to experience this for yourselves (approximately 4 minutes into the video) www.youtube.com/watch?v=A84xfwjws-g

It was a night of very special music.

And it wasn’t my only cultural activity of the evening! Immediately beforehand I’d been round the corner at Blackburne House to see the play ‘Home From Home’, written by my friend, the very talented Marj Morgan. It’s part of this year’s ‘Windrush to Liverpool’ events, marking the contribution that people of West Indian origin have made to local (and national) life, and the hostile environment they’ve faced, and continue to face. If you haven’t seen David Olusoga’s excellent documentary, ‘The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files”, it’s still on the BBC iPlayer, if you have access to it www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00068sk And do see any of Marj’s plays if you have the opportunity. She’s as dedicated to her craft as the Kaleidoscope musicians are to theirs!

Today’s tune, ‘Wandering’, features Su-a Lee playing some trippy jazz with Hidden Orchestra https://youtube.com/watch?v=d3ppF0evyH0#