Shuni Tsou

Shuni Tsou is a bamboo flautist classically trained in the fields of Beijing opera and Chinese classical music. Well versed in the traditions from her native Taiwan, at the National Junior College of Performing Arts, she also builds unique sonic vocabulary on her instruments, which makes her pioneer in the realm of dizi (Chinese bamboo flutes) improvisation, possessing a style that is one of spontaneous passion fused with elegant sophistication. Formerly based in New York City, She has performed with the renowned ensemble Music from China, collaborated with contemporary music figures such as John Zorn, Butch Morris, Oliver Lake and Brandon Ross, and has appeared in several sound recordings. She was invited as featured artist to perform at the Taiwan National Theatre and Concert Hall, the Rockefeller Center, the Venice Biennale, Vision Festival, Princeton University, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Wesleyan University, and the Montreal Asian Heritage Festival and Festival Musique Multi-Montréal (http://www.ledevoir.com/2007/04/27/141112.html). She also gave a live performance in an interview with John Schaeffer in the WNYC radio program SoundCheck. The flautist has a BA in music from the University of York, U.K., and a MA in ethnomusicology from University of Maryland, College Park. She is the recipient of the 2004 Young Artist Grant awarded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.