Li Lu

Cello and Guitar Duo Recital

lilu — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 10:05:33 +0000

The collaboration between cellist Li Lu and guitarist Ahmed Dickinson Cardenas has been established with the aim of introducing first-rate contemporary and rarely heard works for cello and guitar to UK audiences.

Their current repertoire is an excellently balanced variety of styles stemming from Spain and France to South America and even Asia. Expect fearsome, virtuosic, sad, introspective and electrifying.

Performance Details:
This concert runs from 11am-12pm with no interval
Tea and coffee will be available in the glazed courtyard from 10:30-11:00am
The Forge can accept only cash on the door
Loyalty Card Holdlers – this concert applies to our loyalty card scheme

Tickets booking online

A happy encounter

lilu — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:15:56 +0000

It was a Beautiful Summer London Morning Encounter in a park.

I went to London for a performance in the summer time. One morning, I and my cello were resting in the Kennington park. Two Mr. Hippie came to me and asked me to use my cello for a second! — Carrying a cello in public places just like carrying a dog. People usually start to make conversation with me just because they saw a little girl with a big cello case,” what is it?” or “is this a guitar?” or “it must be very heavy, isn’t it?” etc.. but for this time, Doug and Paul who (I figured out later that they are two musicians) knew this is a cello!

What happened was I took out my cello, played for them, and be filmed in their MTV… so two days later, they sent me their new released song with a video click… and two months later, they sent me a short movie!

What a happy encounter! That is the reason I love London! By the way, I trade a beer for 1 minutes playing and .. it was fun and fun of meeting Doug and Paul!

I enjoy watching it… and recommend you to find out more of their stuff..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl58mmEKSVI

A special gift from Cremona

lilu — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:35:43 +0000

A special gift from Cremona (vedio click), and more stories at Art Of Survival

One of my most wonderful memories is of the time in Cremona, in Italy.

Cremona has a distinguished musical history, beginning with the violins of the Amati family and later included the Guarneri and Stradivari workshops. That was the reason for me going there, as my own cello is a copy of a Stradivari. Secretly, I wanted to see how my cello sounded in its homeland. It was a magical experience both for me and my cello!

center square in Cremona

I met a Japanese boy before we got off the train. He can’t speak much English, but understood that we need help. He rang his friends, and friends’ friends. Then 20 minutes later, a Chinese boy called Lu Xiang appeared at the Cremona train station. Woo, we met an angel again! He kindly offered I and Lindsey a place to stay, as well as a nice Chinese meal. Later that night, I played in a big square in the town centre, in front of the city hall. Another local violin-maker called Xue Yi, friend of Lu Xiang, who originally comes from China, came to speak to me after my performance. He said that he was very impressed by my playing, and that it was very rare to see a Chinese musician in this town. We both soon felt that we had found a great friend.

The next morning, before we had to head off to our next destination, he asked me to play one more piece, just for him. Without hesitation, I played the Sarabande from the Bach cello suites No.5: the most simple and touching piece to say good-bye. Then the magic happened. He brought out a half-made cello and said that once it was finished he would give it to me. This would be his way of saying thanks for my performance, and he hoped that one day I would be able to play this cello in the best concert halls in the world.

I knew from the very beginning that this challenge would provide me with a great opportunity to use music to reach people, and to see how different cultures respond to my music. I was looking for something extreme and memorable on this trip, but still can’t believe all this really happened to me. It often amazed me how generous people could be, far beyond what I had expected. This gift from Xue Yi is exceptional: a hand-made cello. It took him more than ten months to make and to me it is piece of art, utterly priceless! The cello has been completed now. Inside the cello, he wrote Fovet musica omnes. It is the Royal Northern College of Music’s motto in Latin, and it means Music Reaches Everybody.

I am using this cello to record Bach cello suites No.5, and you can hear the unique voice of this baby cello in my up coming recording In Love With Bach -vol.2

He wrote “Fovet musica omnes” inside the cello. It is RNCM’s motto in Latin, means Music reaches people. (more stories about my adventure )

At the Cello Factory

lilu — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 01:24:28 +0000

I met the artist Marcia Scott very recently at a group art exhibition in the Cello Factory in London.

I went to the Cello Factory was a accident.. while I was in London for a performance 2 weeks ago, I got one day off, so I took the opportunity to see the South Bank area. Follow the South London Art map, I found there is a gallery called the Cello Factory where used to be a factory and showroom for stringed instruments, specialising in the Stradivarious. An artist now owns the space and it is used for exhibitions and music recitals. My curiosity suddenly raised up and sooner I found out it’s hidden in a very quiet street near the Waterloo.

A group show curated by the distinguished abstract painter Frank Bowling was going on. The exhibition features seven artists, two of which are women, working in the medium of painting, sculpture and print. Yes, Marcia was one of the artists. She said hello and sooner, we started a very pleasant conversation. She’s a very friendly and wise women, very open minded, I almost thought she was American! When she learned I am a cellist, she asked me straight away to play for the closing day of this exhibition, which was 5 days later. Woo! She is very different! and my answer is why not?!

However, I got a great excuse to be in London and that is the reason I love this city — I feel like fish in the water, very much connected with it… and more importantly, I met the other artists in this exhibition and learned so much from their works! What a group of people! talent, bright and hopeful. Especially the great artist Frank Bowling, who has amazing life experience, that took me into a world where I always want to be.

My cello sound was absolutely powerful in the Cello Factory… again, my Bach cello suites rocked the audience, brought out their tears and of course made them with smiling face at the end…

Pop-up Art at the Summer House

lilu — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:36:20 +0000

10:30am 6 July 2011

at the Summer House in the St Mary’s maternity hospital in Manchester

This energetic pop-up exhibition a ‘happeneing’ is the beginning of an exciting collaborative project with me, the glass artists Lauren Sagar and Sharon Campbell and with the film maker and Photographer Garth Williams , documenting the projects journey.

all the photos taken by Garth Williams

The Summer House is an artwork made by the glass artist Lauren Sagar and Sharon Campbell for the St Mary’s maternity hospital in Manchester. Being in the middle of a hospital courtyard, it is surrounded by offices and waiting areas, on three floors, full of nurses, Dr’s, staff and public, looking out onto it.

Imagine a contemporary 3-D Kandinsky painting, that was the Summer House!

Collaborative Project Idea

Bringing the Bach Solo cello suites into the public realm, new audiences, unusual venues, in a visually strangely stunning, designed for purpose….(well that would be letting the cat out of the bag) the curiosity of which, will pull the audience into the musically happening…

the Performance has begun…

Fabulous fun, uplifting, creative, good company, ideas whizzing around and all the while being filmed on and off, and trying to ‘behave naturally’. —- That’s the day, four of us made!

2011 Chorlton Arts Festival

lilu — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:06:20 +0000

At six different venues, from 1pm to 8pm, my performance of the complete Bach cello suites went surprisingly well on 29th May at the 2011 Chorlton Arts Festival! People in Chorlton are amazing… some of my audience followed me from very beginning to the end, the whole way through… I received hundreds people best wishes… I noticed one of my audience, he was tearing since I played the first suite in the Horse and Jockey… but after the third suite finished at the radio station, he went to me say hello with a smiling face. He told me that one of his close friends just passed away recently and listen to the music helped him to release his sadness… I was so touched by those people holding their umbrella standing in the rain watching me play, I can hear they were breathing with me; an old lady with her dog came to the cafe see me play the Bach, some young people study music at Manchester University asked me how to play Bach with less vibrato…

Mean while, I am happy for myself to achieve the goal, be able to play the complete Bach cello suites within one day course with such a feeling of freedom, I really felt I was flying with my cello, especaily when I was playing the No.6 suites! More importantly, I know the Bach can reach wide audience, and people like my idea that classical music is not far away from our lives. It is not only for connoisseurs and the concert hall, but also for every person, everywhere. I like to communicate with people in an intimate atmosphere, share all the joy I received from playing with them together…

My new CD – In Love with Bach has been launched on 25th Feb

lilu — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:43:51 +0000

In Love with Bach is available for downloading now! It requests me lots of courage, energy and emotion to record this master piece; it contains a lot of story and great memory of 2010; it is a new year present for 2011, for all the people who have been supporting me and never stop believing in me. Special thanks to my recording engineer Paul Jones, without his massive patience and hard work, I won’t be able to speak with such unique voice.

To download 18-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire. An album art also included. No middlemen involved other than PayPal. Special offer of 5 pounds minimum for download this album from 25th to 28th February 2011 and the price is totally up to you! Your purchase allows me to keep making music, for which I am profoundly grateful. Thank you!

Marvelous time at the Manchester Buddhist Center

lilu — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:56:15 +0000

If there is anything that could be called perfect, then I will say I just had one, a marvelous evening at the Manchester Buddhist Center on the 25th February that was my first performance of 2011.

After a long Hibernation over the winter, the bear is waking up now. I put 100% energy and 120% passion into this recital, and I felt the heat between me and my audience in the beautiful Lotus hall, beside the powerful Buddha is smiling behind me. I started smoothly with the suites No.1 and gradually build up more tension with the No.2 for the first half. When I played the Suites No.6, I was absolutely flying with my cello! I can feel the audiences were breath with me together!

The greatest thing is through this event, we raised one thousand pounds for the Manchester Buddhist Center, and thanks for Bach who left such powerful music for us to enjoy. Special thanks to my friend Manjunaga and all the stuff at the Buddhist Center for set up this event, and clearly we can see that all the hard work have been paid off!

Last but not least, I am very much appreciate all the compliments that my audience left to me on my Concert Dairy. It is very pleasant to read them and to know that I can bring something special into your life! I will be myself as always and keep going!

P.S More picture and videos of this event will come up soon!

Hello 2011

lilu — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:33:25 +0000

Hello 2011 and hello you! Happy New Year!

It’s 3:32am of the 1st Jan 2011..I am so excited about my new website going to be launched today!

In China, there is a old saying “万事开头难！”（beautiful character, isn’t it?) It means the hardest thing begins at the first step! Yes, after hundreds hours of imagination and creation with my wonderful designer friend Upekshapriya, my new website eventually is facing to the world now. By the way, Upekshapriya has no idea how much appreciation I got for him and never have enough thanks for his extraordinary patience.

I often feel that my whole life is to live on the stage and I have a very strong desire to communicate with my audience, just like I spend all the time with my cello. We need you and want to share with you our music, performance and stories! I wish to build a happy land for both you and me. Through my website, I hope you can find out some up coming evens that you may be interested; you can review some highlight events that I did with great joy in 2010.

Meanwhile, few good news to share with you! My debut CD Believe is available for download now! And my latest recording of the Bach Solo Cello Suites – In love with Bach will be downloadable very soon! It took me lots of courage, energy and emotion to record this master piece; it contains a lot of story and great memory of 2010; it is a 2011 new year present, for all the people who have been supporting me and never stop believing in me.

Finally, may I invite you to come with me, to see my musical world; to laugh, discuss and to exchange our life experience. Let’s meet up at www.lilucello.com

Fun time at Waterstone’s

lilu — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 22:45:16 +0000

Just show you some pictures… I had so much fun at Waterstone’s!!!

Photographer Jing Wen

a big ‘ JOY’ !!!

I really appreciate those audience standing by and I know I surprised them :-）

I love to communicate with my audience!

beauty-audience !

This lovely lady stayed with me from beginning to the end!! Thank you!!