Zhou Xiaoyan

Zhou Xiaoyan

Zhou Xiaoyan, born in Wuhan on August 17, 1917, graduated from the Russian Conservatory of music in Paris, is a singer and music educator.

She is a master of Chinese bel canto vocal music education. She has won the Golden Bell Award, the highest honor award of Chinese music art, and the French national officer medal awarded by the French government. His works include ballad of the Great Wall, our final victory and clam shell.

At 0:32 on March 4, 2016, famous singer Zhou Xiaoyan died of illness at the age of 99.

Character experience

Xiaoyan was born in Wuhan in 1917. Zhou Xiaoyan's father Zhou Cangbai is a very progressive industrialist. He likes music very much. Influenced by his father, Zhou Xiaoyan has been interested in music since childhood.

In September 1935, Zhou Xiaoyan, who loved music, was admitted to Shanghai National Conservatory of music to study vocal music. In 1937, when the Anti Japanese war broke out, Zhou Xiaoyan was forced to stop her studies and return to her hometown. At the end of 1938, Zhou Xiaoyan came to Paris. In Paris, she met the famous composer Alexander chilpin. With his help, she entered the Russian Conservatory of music in Paris to study vocal music. In October 1945, after seven years of hard work, Zhou Xiaoyan finally stepped on the stage of Paris National Grand Theater. When she first appeared on the stage, she conquered the critical French audience with her exquisite skills and wonderful singing voice. After that, Zhou Xiaoyan was invited to the Czech Republic to attend the Prague Spring Concert. Zhou Xiaoyan's performance has been a great success, known as "China's Nightingale".

In 1937, anti Japanese propaganda team: Xia Zhiqiu sang the chorus of "eight hundred heroes" by Gui Tao. Zhou Xiaoyan was the female lead singer and sang the song in Victoria Memorial Hall. Xia Zhiqiu accompanied her personally. Wuhan Ta Kung Pao published an article commenting that the slogan "China will not die" was well put forward, and the song was soon printed on record and sung everywhere. Wuhan became the center of the national anti Japanese War, and Zhou Xiaoyan's "the final victory belongs to us" and "song of eight hundred heroes" became a shot in the arm when people were confused.

In October 1945, Xiao Zisheng's "clam shell" (later renamed "farmer and Fairy") premiered at the National Grand Theatre in Paris. The Paris public opinion circles paid close attention to it. Zhou Xiaoyan's photos were published in major newspapers, and famous music critics also wrote articles to express their appreciation.

On March 30, 1946, at the White House theatre in London, Zhou Xiaoyan and Li Xianmin gave a special concert to introduce Chinese contemporary music works. The repertoire includes qierpin's "wine beauty" (also known as "peach blossom shop, apricot blossom village", adapted from Yunnan folk song "Chinese New Year"), Meng Haoran's poem "Spring Dawn", etc. the two songs are tailored according to Zhou Xiaoyan's Huaqiang skills, "mussel shell" is selected and sung in French. The news in London's newspapers, entitled "the song o flitlewallow", was recorded live by the BBC and transmitted to the world. The performance was a great success.

At the end of July 1946, Zhou Xiaoyan's first solo concert was solemnly held at the Cassino theatre in Luxembourg. The repertoire includes the songs of foreign composers such as pegolesi, Purcell, Schubert, Liszt, Verdi and Chinese composers such as He Luting.

In October 1946, she was invited to visit Berlin for the first time and held two solo concerts at Fuxing theater, which won Zhou Xiaoyan the reputation of "China's warbler". The newspaper excitedly commented: "it fully shows Schubert's interest!" "Chinese orioles sing Schubert's song!"

On December 9, 1946, the "China's night" fake seat chemistry Association in Paris was held. Ambassador Qian Tai and his wife of the Paris embassy, representatives and officials of the United Nations Conference on science, culture and education, as well as Dr. Zhao Yuanren, Li Shuhua, Cheng Wenfang and Zhu Kezhen, representatives of Chinese science, education and culture, Mr. Qian Sanqiang and Wang Dezhao, well-known overseas Chinese, and female painter pan Yuliang were also gathered. Zhou Xiaoyan and Li Xianmin performed a group of programs in the first half and the second half respectively. In the first half, they sang Chinese songs such as "Lotus picking ballad", "red bean lyrics" and "how I don't want him". In the second half, they sang the original opera aria and foreign art songs in English, Italian, French and German. Qiang Ren, a special correspondent of Shenbao in Paris, wrote a communication. On December 26, Shenbao reported in detail the grand occasion of the party with the title of "Zhou Xiaoyan, the singer of Haiguo, and Li Xianmin, the zither player of some years in Europe". The Chinese reporter wrote in the communication: "the achievements of Hubei and Guangdong are comparable to those of European and American talents, and they have to sacrifice a lot of money and time for ten years."

On January 18, 1947, French radio invited Zhou Xiaoyan to sing for 15 minutes. In February, her teacher, Ms. bronge, conducted Bach's "passion" chorus and invited her to perform as soprano solo. On February 25, Zhou Xiaoyan went to the GAV hall, which is specially for world-class musicians, and successfully held a solo concert. Later, she performed the oratorio "clam shell" in the famous Champs Elysees theatre in Paris. Qian Tai, Chinese ambassador to France, presided over the concert in person. At that time, experts' evaluation of Zhou Xiaoyan's singing can be divided into three characteristics according to the summary of an article by Mr. Guo Youshou: first, it is pure and flawless; second, it is crystal transparent and solid; third, it has personality and maintains the Chinese cultural background. The English edition of Paris weekly commented: "the reason why the concert can make the audience feel so excited is because of the artist's perfect singing ability and cultivation, as well as the performance of the works." "In particular, I want to point out her flawless vocal skills, such as continuous, jump, light, semi strong and strong are very bright, giving people unusual enjoyment."

In May 1947, at the first "Prague Spring" International Music Festival hosted by Czechoslovakia, Zhou and Li's photos and concert program list were published on the exquisite printed materials of "Prague Spring". There was also a large paragraph on the program list introducing Chinese contemporary music, which was written by chilpin and sang three groups of songs. The first group was Jiang Wenye's "love call in the fie" The second group is the song of the Great Wall, and the third group is the fragment of clam shell, as well as the song of spring dawn and drinking song composed by Qi erpin.

In October 1947, Zhou Xiaoyan returned to her motherland with the heart of serving the country for nine years. At that time, China was still under the rule of the Kuomintang government, and the people were still living in misery. What she saw made Zhou Xiaoyan feel sad. She ran around singing for the progressive students.

In 1949, the founding of new China, Zhou Xiaoyan ushered in a new life, she was employed as a vocal music teacher of Shanghai Conservatory of music, began her teaching life.

On May 5, 1952, Zhou Xiaoyan and Zhang Junxiang held a wedding. The wedding was simple, but it was a wedding reception for the family of Dong Fangzhong, Zhou Xiaoyan's uncle and famous doctor.

Personal life

"I'll do it all my life"

Zhou Xiaoyan, who is 90 years old, teaches students at home every day. The workload of four classes in the morning and three classes in the afternoon is already overloaded for her, but it is a rare opportunity for those graduate students and undergraduates to listen to Zhou Xiaoyan's class. Under the guidance of her unique teaching method, perhaps soon, vocal talents will be born here.

Host: over the years, you have trained many excellent students to win international awards. For example, after Liao Changyong finished his performance, the judges thought that only a few countries such as Europe and America can cultivate such singers. So I think they are just as curious as me, including the audience friends in front of the TV, sitting opposite me, like you How can a thin lady send out so much energy and cultivate so many world-class singers.

Zhou Xiaoyan: they asked me if you could cultivate more Liao Changyong. I don't dare to say that, because I think as a teacher, I only account for one third of a student's success, which is to play a guiding and theoretical role, and another third is to rely on instinct. He has to learn. First of all, he has to be able to learn. Liao Changyong can learn. He knows how to get something, how to study by himself and how to draw inferences from one instance. He can play his role.

Host: then speaking of Liao Changyong, I heard that when he was participating in the Domingo competition, Domingo told him that you have a very great teacher and she has a very special training system, so I would like to ask you to use a very simple and popular way to introduce the training system and the training system to our audience friends What's the special way.

Zhou Xiaoyan: according to the requirements of bel canto, they have summed up a set of scientific theories. They have instruments to show you. There are no more than four parts for making sound. One is breathing, which is a driving force. Just like you play a drum, a hammer has resonance. If you have a resonance cavity, it will ring. Our resonance cavity is chest cavity resonance, pharyngeal cavity resonance, and head cavity resonance. You can find one The way to make a sound is to make a sound, because it can't see or touch, and there are no feelings in some places, so we have to rely on our ears and experience.

Host: what's your special way to make students feel this resonance.

Zhou Xiaoyan: the individual treatment of vocal music teaching is very important, in addition to the different body, and everyone's cultural background is also different, understanding and understanding

Chinese PinYin : Zhou Xiao Yan