Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man gives a workshop on improvisational techniques to Bard students at the second annual conference of the U.S.-China Music Institute, at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, the United States, March 12, 2019. Educators and performers from the U.S., Canada and Europe Tuesday wrapped up a two-day conference in New York on the developments and challenges of teaching Chinese music in the West. The event, themed "Tradition and Discovery: Teaching Chinese Music," was presented by the U.S.-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in partnership with China's Central Conservatory of Music, the Music Confucius Institute at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and the Center for Chinese Music and Culture at Middle Tennessee State University. (Xinhua/Zou Guangping)

A young Egyptian lady was playing a piece of music on the oud, an ancient Arabian musical instrument, at the Arabic Oud House for teaching oud playing in a historical area of the Egyptian capital Cairo.

The piece she was playing was the Chinese folk song Jasmine Flower, or Mo Li Hua, which is usually played in China on the Chinese oud-like instrument pipa.

Shahd Hesham, 19, an oud player and teacher at the Arabic Oud House, played a piece of Egyptian music and highlighted the similarities between the tones created by oud and pipa and between Egyptian and Chinese folk music.

"Egyptian and Chinese folk music can communicate and complete one another in many areas. For example, we can take music sentences from a Chinese track and play them in an Egyptian style, while the Chinese can take Egyptian music sentences and play them in their own style," the Egyptian oud teacher told Xinhua.

She explained that the Chinese pipa is a string instrument just like the oud, but it is a little smaller, it sounds a little sharper. "When different cultures cooperate and jointly present a concert, the result is so beautiful and diversified," Hesham told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Mario Saied, an oud teacher and music composer, was on stage making a sound test for his oud before leading a performance in the yard of the Arabic Oud House.

Saied, 24, expressed his belief that cooperation between different cultures in music means "richness."

"Difference in music is beautiful, and what's more beautiful is to have cooperation among different music instruments, which produces beautiful tones," said the Egyptian oud player. "We're always trying and searching for a beautiful sound of combining instruments, so we try the oud with the Chinese pipa, the mandolin, the Indian sitar, etc. Each experience is richness in itself," he said.

"I have on my cell phone a photo gallery of Chinese artifacts and museums, which I am fond of. I hope there will be a chance for future music cooperation not only between Egypt and China but between Egypt and every place where there is music," Saied said.

Xinhua