Minnesota Orchestra taps its Chinese-born bassoonist to celebrate Lunar New Year

Fei Xie has played music since he was 3, growing up in China, the son of two professional Peking Opera musicians.

But over decades of training, his musical world remained distinct from theirs. Xie concentrates on the western classical repertory as principal bassoonist of the Minnesota Orchestra. Zhengang Xie and Mei Hu are masters of the jing hu and yue qin, respectively, traditional Chinese instruments that use the pentatonic scale.

They've never performed onstage together — but will this weekend, with a pair of Lunar New Year concerts that Xie designed.

"The new year is about family, celebrating together," Xie said. "So this is actually quite incredible that we're celebrating together and onstage, with music.

"It just doesn't get any better than that."

Adding to the occasion: Xie's wife, Fei Wen, a freelance flutist, will perform as part of the orchestra.

"Sharing the stage with our son and daughter-in-law is ... very meaningful," Hu said via e-mail, with Xie translating. She and her husband "want to bring Peking Opera music to a broader audience, and we are really thankful the Minnesota Orchestra is taking the initiative on planning this Lunar New Year concert."

The couple will be featured on "In the Dark Night," by Chinese composer Hua Wu, playing free-flowing melodies, "trills and tremolos abounding," according to the program notes.

The orchestra's assistant concertmaster, violinist Rui Du, who also grew up in China, will perform "The Butterfly Lovers" concerto, while Twin Cities composer Gao Hong will solo on the pipa, a pear-shaped lute, for the world premiere of her "Guangxi Impression."

Audiences will "hear all this music from different cultures," Xie said, "but they are all paired with the western orchestra. So it will be something they're familiar with and something they have never seen before."

Part of the Great Northern Festival, Saturday night's concert will be broadcast on TPT's Minnesota Channel, on Minnesota Public Radio and online via mnorch.vhx.tv. Sunday's performance is a one-hour, budget-priced family show.

'I want to learn this'

Xie, 40, once thought he'd become a concert pianist.

Growing up in Tangshan, a city roughly 100 miles east of Beijing in the northern province of Hebei, he started studying the instrument at 3, after his uncle, a composer, discovered that little Fei could sing back the notes he was playing on a toy piano.

"Fei always had great ears," his father said.

At 12, he auditioned at one of China's finest music schools, but it was clear his piano skills weren't great enough to get in. The school, in Beijing, told him he could take lessons for a year, then apply again, or consider other instruments.

His lips weren't ideal for brass horns, but a woodwinds teacher asked: "Do you know what a bassoon is?"

"I said, 'Sure,' but I had no idea," he said, laughing.

She played for him, and he was immediately drawn to its strange look and tender tone: "It had this beautiful, mellow sound, like tenor and bass voice combined. I said, 'I want to learn this.'"

After years of piano lessons, his parents were hesitant. But they saw his resolve, his mother said. "We as parents can only support him."

Starting on a new instrument, Xie was behind. A blank sheet of paper, as he put it.

That also meant he had no bad habits to break. Constantly blowing left him light-headed at first, but once he got the hang of the mechanics, his foundation in piano helped. He could read the music, catch the rhythm, mold a melody.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin Conservatory and master's degree from Rice University. In 2012, he was named principal bassoon of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra — becoming the first Chinese-born bassoonist to hold such a position in a major U.S. symphony orchestra.

Not long after starting at the Minnesota Orchestra in 2017, he raised the idea of a Lunar New Year concert, with an eye toward the Asian populations here.

"I was thinking this would be a great platform to showcase this different music in China and other countries," he said, "bringing it to our regular audiences but also giving the Asian community a piece of home."

Soloing to an online audience

Last January, when the orchestra was still playing for broadcast only, to an empty concert hall, Xie took the Orchestra Hall stage as a concerto soloist for the first time.

As the musicians stomped their feet and waved their bows in appreciation, he stepped onto the platform, wet his reed and gave music director Osmo Vänskä a nod.

Then he played Mozart's Bassoon Concerto, gliding between quick passages and long phrases, between high and low registers, between finesse and romance. "Bravo!" someone shouted. The Star Tribune's critic called it "an unqualified success."

"He sings through his instrument," said fellow bassoonist Christopher Marshall.

Symphony orchestras rarely program bassoon concertos, Marshall noted. Because so few orchestras were performing at that time, the online audience included bassoonists from all over.

"Not only did he play beautifully," he said, "but lots of people across the country and the world got to hear it."

Marshall and Xie first played together during Xie's audition process — Ravel's "Rapsodie Espagnole," a "notoriously hard" duet, as Marshall put it. But they came together almost effortlessly.

"In a weird way we're kindred spirits," said Marshall, a Texas native. "We come from very different backgrounds, but we think of music in a lot of the same ways.

"We rarely have to discuss things, we just play."

Xie and Marshall have boys the same age, so they celebrate birthdays together and enjoy meals with one another.

Last year, Xie's parents moved to Plymouth from Cincinnati, where they regularly performed Peking Opera music. They wanted to be closer to Xie, their only child, and their two grandsons.

"We need to be together to help out and take care of things," Xie said.

His sons, ages 11 and 8, each study two instruments. Any chance they'd get onstage this weekend, too?

"They're too young and not well behaved enough yet," Xie said, smiling. "But who knows? One of these days we could all be onstage together."

Lunar New Year concerts

When: 8 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. Sun.

Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $12-$67, 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org