Teachers College, Columbia University
Milbank Chapel
Pipa and piano found a shared voice in Spring River in the Flower Moon Night.
GCAC PRESENTS / OCTOBER 9–11, 2026
Beyond East
and West.
无论西东
Fang Jinlong · A musical dialogue across three universities
Explore the journey
BRUSH TO REVEAL / 无论西东
AN EAST COAST ENCOUNTER / 2026
Three campuses.
One living dialogue.
Follow the music from New York to Princeton, then on to New Haven.
Choose a destination to step inside.
TOUR ROUTE · SCHEMATIC / NOT TO SCALE
Princeton University
Frist Campus Center
Fang Jinlong and Vince di Mura met for the first time—and answered one another in music.
Yale University
Linsly-Chittenden Hall · LC 102
A roundtable, a masterclass and an unexpected finale: Ambush from Ten Sides.
From October 9 to 11, 2026, Beyond East and West brought Fang Jinlong to Columbia, Princeton and Yale. Presented by GCAC and Fang Jinlong Guoyue, the journey combined instrument demonstrations, live collaborations and conversations about the ways traditions are learned, shared and renewed.
Beginning with the history of the Jiahu bone flute, Fang moved between instruments, poetry and everyday speech. He explained the differences between four- and five-string pipas and explored how one instrument could evoke the sounds of different regions. Knowledge became something audiences could hear, question and experience together.
VOICES ALONG THE JOURNEY
Meet the
touring guests.
Music, interpretation
and cultural exchange.
Yifei (Michael) Xu
Composer · Doctoral student in composition, Boston University
Yifei Xu is a composer and doctoral student in composition at Boston University, and a graduate of New York University and Boston Conservatory. His works have been performed at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York and the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, and have received composition awards from The American Prize and ASCAP.
His practice spans contemporary instrumental music, traditional Chinese music, electronic music and artificial intelligence in music. He also works in music education and new-media communication, with a combined online following of more than 300,000.
His work and perspectives on Chinese music have been featured in China Daily, 21st Century, Wen Wei Po and other Chinese media.
Listening introductions at Princeton and Yale · Yale roundtable guest
Nicol Qian
Chair of the Board, GCAC · Guqin heritage bearer · Pianist
Nicol Qian is Chair of the Board of the Global Center of Arts and Culture, a thirteenth-generation bearer of the Guangling school of guqin, a pianist and a co-founder of the intangible cultural heritage education forum at Harvard University.
She founded and leads the Asian Music Industry Festival, which has received official commendations from the Governor of Massachusetts, the Mayor of Boston, Boston City Council leadership and the Massachusetts State Auditor.
Her honours include recognition among Forbes China’s 100 Most Influential Chinese Elites and the All-America Chinese Youth Elite 30 Under 30. She has also been appointed a Youth Friendship Ambassador by Jiangsu Province and received the honorary title of Public Welfare Image Ambassador from China Youth Daily.
Yale roundtable moderator
THREE CAMPUSES / ONE CONVERSATION
The journey
Programme archive · All times were Eastern local time.
09 OCT2026 / FRIDAY
Columbia University
6:00–8:00 PM · Milbank Chapel
Teachers College · 525 W 120th Street, New York
Moonlight, strings and piano
At Columbia, Fang Jinlong and pianist Chen Wang performed Spring River in the Flower Moon Night together. The pipa’s clear, delicate timbre met the piano’s flowing phrases, giving the familiar work a different colour through their exchange.
The evening also showed how performance could become a form of teaching. Henan Cheng, Executive Director of the Center on Chinese Education at Teachers College, praised Fang’s ability to make complex musical knowledge vivid and approachable. Demonstration and explanation opened a path for younger listeners to explore the traditions for themselves.
In conversation
Henan Cheng
Executive Director, Center on Chinese Education, Teachers College
At Teachers College, her work connects Chinese education and cultural exchange. She welcomed the programme’s approach to learning through music.
Host and educator
Chen Wang
Pianist · Research Associate & Arts Education Programme Manager, Columbia
She joined Fang Jinlong for Spring River in the Flower Moon Night, bringing pipa and piano together in a shared interpretation.
Guest pianist
Fang Fei
Conductor & Music Director, Manhattan Philharmonic
A conductor and music director joining the Columbia gathering and its exchange across musical traditions.
Special guest
Local host: Center on Chinese Education, Teachers College, Columbia University.
Supporting organisations: CGELA and Teachers College Chinese Students Association.
01 / COLUMBIA · OCTOBER 9, 2026
An evening in dialogue.
From the first welcome in Milbank Chapel to the applause that followed: pipa, piano and a room brought together by music.
Select a photograph to step closer
When strings meet keys
Fang Jinlong and Chen Wang share the stage at Columbia.
The room responds
Listening, discovery and applause at Milbank Chapel.
A shared memory
Guests and participants come together after the programme.
10 OCT2026 / SATURDAY
Princeton University
10:00 AM–12:00 PM · Frist Campus Center
Multi-Purpose Room (MPR)
A first meeting, an improvised conversation
Fang Jinlong and jazz pianist Vince di Mura were playing together for the first time. Their five-string pipa and piano duet grew through close listening and spontaneous replies: a musical encounter made in the moment.
Even while watching Fang’s instrument demonstrations from the side of the stage, Vince joined in, applauding and tapping rhythms on his chair. His responses captured the pleasure of finding a musician with whom ideas could move so freely.
Yifei Xu’s listening introduction brought another perspective to the programme. The gathering also welcomed guqin performer and scholar John Thompson, bamboo-flute and xiao player Xiaoran Liu, and dance artist Xinyi Zhou, bringing different artistic practices into the same room.
Featured guest
Vince di Mura
Jazz Pianist & Composer · Resident Music Director, Princeton
His first musical meeting with Fang Jinlong became an improvised dialogue between jazz piano and the five-string pipa.
Guest pianist
Local host: Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Princeton University (ACSSPU).
02 / PRINCETON · OCTOBER 10, 2026
Close to the music.
The five-string pipa, a jazz piano, the detail of a gesture. At Frist, each exchange offered another way to listen.
Select a photograph to step closer
Together at Frist
Artists, hosts and participants mark a shared morning at Princeton.
A conversation across traditions
Listening and exchanging ideas together at Frist Campus Center.
Inside the performance
The voice of the five-string pipa, heard at close range.
Listening is part of playing
Vince di Mura at the piano during the musical exchange.
Another instrument, another voice
Demonstrations opened the conversation beyond the pipa.
A world in a gesture
A closer view of the strings during an instrument demonstration.
A room of listeners
An encounter shared across generations and musical traditions.
An improvised conversation
Musicians listening and responding to one another on stage.
A shared moment
Music brings the Princeton community together.
11 OCT2026 / SUNDAY
Yale University
2:30–4:30 PM · Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Room 102
63 High Street, New Haven, CT 06511
Passing an art from one generation to the next
At Yale, the conversation moved from listening to transmission. Moderated by GCAC Chair Nicol Qian, the roundtable brought together Fang Jinlong, Yu-Lin Wang Saussy and Yifei Xu to discuss how younger audiences encounter tradition, how language finds expression in music, and how an art is passed on.
Nicol’s reflections on learning guqin, painting and calligraphy gave the discussion a personal starting point. Wang Saussy brought the perspective of language education and traditional culture, while Fang and Xu drew on performance and composition. Together, they considered teaching as both a practical exchange and a relationship of care.
That exchange became tangible on stage. Yale School of Music violinists Yiyuan Zhang and Xinyue Hu each collaborated with Fang, and pipa student Wenhui Wang received guidance in a live masterclass. A short phrase became an opportunity to listen again and learn through direct demonstration.
For the finale, Fang surprised the audience with Ambush from Ten Sides—the work’s only performance during the three-stop journey. Its dramatic contrasts and vivid battlefield imagery brought the programme to an exhilarating close.
Roundtable
Nicol Qian
Chair of the Board, GCAC · Guqin Heritage Bearer & Pianist
A thirteenth-generation bearer of the Guangling school of guqin, Nicol leads GCAC and co-founded the Asian Music Industry Festival.
Roundtable moderator
Full biographyFang Jinlong
Chinese Instrumentalist · Five-string Pipa Artist
A multi-instrumentalist known for the five-string pipa, Fang shares Chinese musical traditions through performance and live demonstrations.
Roundtable guest
Yu-Lin Wang Saussy
Senior Lector II, East Asian Languages & Literatures, Yale
Her teaching brings modern and classical Chinese, cultural education and the transmission of Kunqu into conversation.
Roundtable guest
Yifei Xu
Composer and music commentator
A composer and Boston University doctoral student whose practice spans contemporary instrumental music, Chinese traditions and electronic music.
Roundtable guest
Full biographyLocal host: Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Yale (ACSSY).
The association supports social, academic and cultural exchange within Yale’s Chinese student and scholar community.
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Different traditions.
A shared understanding.
With thanks to the hosts, supporting organisations, guests and volunteers at all three stops. The music ended; the conversations continue.
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