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Exclusive Interviews
As one of the world’s premier guzheng musicians, Bei Bei (Beibei Monter) has been prominently featured on Disney soundtracks, performed with global stars such as Christina Aguilera, and released several critically acclaimed original albums. Bei Bei is our headliner for our Celebrating Chinese New Year programs that highlights Chinese-American artists and teaches about the history of their arts. She is performing at Casa Romantica two nights in a row with one focusing on traditional compositions and another on her contemporary pieces. Learn about Bei Bei history with the ancient instrument and what to expect from her concerts at Casa Romantica in our written interview below.
The original name for Guzheng 古筝 (pronounced goo-jung) is Zheng 筝 (pronounced jung). It is a multi-stringed instrument with movable bridges under each string. It has over 2500 years of history. Zheng became popular in Qin (a state in ancient China) during the Warring State Period, 475-221 A.D. The Chinese word “Gu” (古) means “ancient”. Modern Chinese people added “Gu” before the word “Zheng” to express that this instrument is from ancient times. Nowadays, the name “Guzheng” is more commonly known to people both in China and worldwide.
The Guzheng was used in both court and folk music in ancient China. Recent evidence shows that the ancient Guzheng had only five strings, but sometime later, that number increased to between twelve and sixteen strings. Today, modern Guzhengs have a variety of strings ranging from eighteen to twenty-seven (and sometimes more). Nowadays, the most common type is the twenty-one-stringed Guzheng.
The Guzheng was a very popular instrument in ancient China, appealing to both refined and popular tastes. It has many classic and folk pieces inherited from the ancient time. There are also several traditional folk playing styles created from different geographic regions of China. During the past thirty years, its popularity has increased exponentially in China once more. Modern guzheng compositions written by composers in the method of European classical compositions flourish. Guzheng performances appear in big concert halls frequently. With the expansion of information sharing and Internet media, the guzheng is also now the most well-known traditional Chinese instrument on an international level.
When I was 6-years old, I fell in love with the guzheng at first sight when I saw a good friend of mine playing it. I loved its beautiful sound and magnificent look. I begged my mom to take me to lessons. My parents found me a great teacher – professor Lijing Sha at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, then I started to take private lessons with her on a weekly basis.
Professor Sha told me that I was gifted in music and had good musical intuition, and that was very encouraging. During that period, I did many performances and won several local and national competitions. When I was twelve-years-old, I was admitted to a six-year pre-college music program at the Central University of Nationalities in Beijing, where I started to pursue Guzheng performance as a career path. I had many great guzheng teachers such as professor Danxi Jiang, Mulan Hai, Chunjiang Teng and Lingzi Xu who nourished me musically and inspired me to progress. These people and experiences gave me confidence and passion to devote my career to mastering this instrument.
I don’t have a single one that means the most. There are several career highlights that mean a lot to me. They are:
The music I wrote was meant for the guzheng. However, I have seen guitar players cover the songs that I wrote.
Since the guzheng is normally tuned to pentatonic scales, it can be very challenging to play these types of scores because they often contain notes that are outside of my instrument’s normal tunings. In those recording sessions, I had to make judgments quickly and arrange a reasonable performing method and multiple key changes to be able to play the desired melodies. It also requires my improvisation skills to add embellishments and stylish interpretations of the notes written to make the music sound more authentic to its Chinese origin. However, it is very fun and rewarding for myself to be able to interpret these composers’ non-traditional scores with my instrument so the audience can hear the new sounds and melodies created by us.
“Spring Awakens” was written in early 2021 by Los Angeles based composer John “Fingazz” Stary and me. 2020 was a tough year for many of us, there was a lot of fear and uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. After going through the challenges, sorrow and anxiety in 2020, finally the spring of 2021 brought us new hope and revival because of the dropping of new covid cases and the vaccines coming out. The renewed energy of spring inspired me. Therefore, I decided to create a piece with Fingazz to express our longing for life, our hope for nature, and our firm belief in the natural law of “winter goes to spring”. I am very fortunate and grateful to be able to film its music video at Casa Romantica. It is a perfect location for it.
“Fireworks” was also written in early 2021 by Fingazz and me. We wanted to create a song of celebrations, celebrations of the new year, the new beginning and renewal of life. We anticipated that 2022, the year of tiger, will be a year of return for performers like myself. I wanted to be able to perform this piece when I get to perform live again on a big stage with a large audience. The song is filled with vigor and expresses our determination to triumph over hardships. We also made a fantastic music video for the song. Our dream came true when I got invited to perform this piece as well as “Spring Awakens” with the Pacific Symphony on February 5th at its Lunar New Year concert at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. “Fireworks” means victory and triumph to me.
My “Year of the Funky” casa vibes performance will include my wonderful fusion band with Jon Monter on the electric guitar, Khris Kempis on the electric bass, and Sam Halterman on the drums. We will play music that is groovy, funky, jazzy, and pop. Besides my original music, you will also hear familiar pop/rock tunes such as “Stayin alive” by Bee Gees and “I feel It Coming” by the Weekend . With the beautiful sound of the guzheng and our stylish interpretations of these songs, audience can expect a night of lots of fun listening and dancing to the music. This concert will reflect my integration of the traditional and the contemporary as well as how the band and I bring the Chinese and American cultures together.
I would recommend young artists to learn not only the instruments, but also the cultures that they come from. By knowing the context of the musical piece that you play, the history and cultural background of it, you will be able to understand how to interpret it so it is more authentic to its heritage. I also encourage young artists to be creative and invent their own styles and methods of playing traditional instruments.
