Meet the Artists: Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn

When Grammy-winning banjo player Abigail Washburn, and guzheng virtuoso Wu Fei first met, what began as friendship quickly grew into a powerful musical collaboration. Their music blends traditions in many ways that feel timeless. Through a shared love for music and authenticity, the duo weaves together sounds from opposite sides of the world—inviting audiences to experience an event that is both joyful and healing.

Your collaboration brings together two distinct musical traditions. How did you first come together as artists, and what inspired you to blend the sounds of the guzheng and banjo?

Fei: I was put on the path of music by my family when I was a toddler. Not my choice! In China, it is very common for parents to choose or heavily influence their kid’s life plan. 

I showed musical talent at a very young age. Though I hated practicing like every child, I had no choice but to stick to it. Looking back now, I am glad that I practiced for so many hours. Ten thousand hours literally described how many hours I practiced music from 5 to 15 years old. After that, I got into the China Conservatory of Music, where all I did was study and practice music all day long for the next six years.

About mixing the guzheng with the banjo, I hadn’t planned that mixture in any particular way. Abby and I became friends quickly after we met. Because she spoke Chinese and sang Chinese folk songs that I knew from childhood, I had an instant connection with her culturally. I felt that whatever instrument she played would have been equally fun for me to play with. It could be guitar, drums, or clarinet. Growing up in a music conservatory environment in Beijing, I had opportunities to compose works for many different instruments, Chinese and non-Chinese, from piano and violin to marimba. Writing for mixed-instrument ensembles was part of my training. And that made me curious: I always want to write new work for instruments that I haven’t previously written for. 

When I came to the States to continue my music study, I was exposed to many instruments that I hadn’t seen before. 

The best kind of collaboration comes from the artists’ openness to new experiences.

How do you navigate the cultural and musical differences between Appalachia and China to create a harmonious and innovative sound?

Abby: When it comes to music, I don’t believe there is any kind of music that is not compatible with another. The challenge in mixing styles comes down to the listening, space-making, expression, and skill of the humans channeling the culture and music. Fei and I both love our instruments, music, and ability to express ourselves through all of the music we have been exposed to, and that continues in the collaboration between the two of us as well.

All that said, there are aspects of our instruments and musical traditions combining that I love. I love how Fei can use the guzheng to create extended arpeggios, lilting and leaping around the banjo roll. I love how the banjo can create a continuous flow of sixteenth notes while Fei bends a note to create microtones around the banjo’s tonal center. I love singing a mountain song with hard and long notes while Fei can simultaneously sing a soft and winding folk song from the southeast of China, wrapping it and hanging it on the sound of an Appalachian mountaintop. I love how there are cowboy songs, chicken songs, kitchen songs, mourning songs, work songs, lullabies, and love songs in these musical traditions on opposite sides of the planet. 

Can you share the creative process behind your performances? How do you select and arrange pieces that reflect both of your musical backgrounds?

Abby: Luckily our collaborative performances are a continuation of a long musical relationship. We share on stage what we discovered jamming and writing on my front porch in TN. We started with songs we loved that emerged in us in the presence of the other… often connected to old folk songs we learned from elders or teachers of friends in the folk tradition. I would say, “Hey, does China have any cowboy songs?” or Fei would sing me a beautiful lullaby from the north of China, and it would make me think of a lullaby from the British Isles, or I would play a hard-driving banjo tune connected deeply to African Americans, and Fei would find a work song from western China to match it…and then we would figure out how to weave them together! We had to have patience learning one another’s songs and finding ways for them to make space for one another. Sometimes we found opportunities to write original music or lyrics to connect ideas. It is very exciting to share these discoveries and expressions across cultures and lives with Notre Dame friends!

What are some of the most surprising or unexpected moments that have emerged from your collaboration?

Abby: I think I was surprised at how meaningful this music was for some of my Chinese-American friends and their sense of connection to their elder Chinese generations. We have also met a number of young women in China and the US with strong Chinese and American influences, either with family or deep experiences in both cultures, and they feel seen and complete somehow in our collaborative sound. Truthfully, it is a surprise and joy to connect with anyone that finds meaning in the music we make together!

How do you see your music contributing to cross-cultural understanding, particularly between the U.S. and China?

Fei: People from both countries love our music every time we play in front of them. They appreciate hearing and learning the tunes from each other’s cultures. I hope that the policy makers on both sides will hear our music so they can chill out and stop pouring all the nasty propaganda against ordinary people. We are going through a chaotic time right now in the U.S. I hope our music can help people to not only heal their hearts but also to wake them up not to be used as tools by the governments to divide each other.

Abby: Agreed!! The ordinary people live lives represented by our folk songs: a desire to love and be loved, to have purpose and service and work and security and family and fun and beauty. It is time to create beauty together rather than be divided by the algorithms of technology and power trying to divide us and secure the world’s resources for the very few. It is time to love and connect above all else. Music is a natural channel for the energy of acceptance, space-making, and love. 

What role does improvisation play in your performances, especially given the unique blend of instruments and traditions?

Fei: Improvisation was not intended to take much of a role when we recorded the album. However, after a few years of playing and touring, it has become quite a big part of our live shows to add different kinds of excitement. For our concert on April 5, there will be improvisations for sure! 

Can you tell us about a particularly memorable performance or experience you’ve had together that has shaped your musical journey?

Fei: We had our first duo show trying out the material in December 2010 in my hometown of Beijing. It was part of the Capital M Literary Festival at a restaurant by the historic Qianmen Street with views of the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Besides the beautiful setting, in the audience were my family, classmates from China Conservatory of Music, and international fans (Moroccans, Americans, South Africans, Australians, etc.) who were living in Beijing. The room felt like a United Nations. 

How do your personal backgrounds and experiences influence the music you create together, both individually and as a duo?

Abby: Although Fei and I both have important musical involvements outside of our duo that are very different, our duo uses a lot of both of our abilities. The music also calls on our stories of growing up, adulting, and then parenting. Fei and I have been lucky to know one another’s families and friends and to have extensive experience in one another’s cultures to the point that our worlds have become overlapping and mutually influencing across the board. Sometimes when we are creating a song and have a silly moment, I feel like we are 11-year-old girls having a sleepover in the hutong home Fei grew up in; then sometimes as we’re traveling away from our families, I feel complete in our shared relief/joy/slap-happy realization that we do not have to consider our family’s needs and we can have a glass of wine, a good meal, and sleep in without anyone bugging us. And sometimes we sing a song, and I feel like two old ladies sharing a bench in a park complaining about “the young kids” these days. Fei and my friendship and music exist in the multiverse! 

What do you hope audiences will take away from your performances, especially in terms of understanding and appreciating the fusion of these two rich musical traditions?

Fei: Instruments and traditions are beautiful and rich because humans make them beautiful by telling and sharing stories of their joys and sorrows throughout history. No one instrument stands alone without having nutrients from another culture, from the oldest that we know of to the ones being invented today. We are all living beings on this one planet, Earth. Artists are like magnets among humans who are more stubborn and driven about where they want to go, like being pulled by a magnetic force. We all have that force. I hope everyone finds clarity of that force and heads to the attractive direction of their destiny. 

Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the future of your collaboration, and how do you hope to continue evolving your sound?

Abby: For me, if our music could be of service in piercing the governmental and corporate propaganda in the US and China trying to make your people into enemies, I would gladly go to work tearing down the fearmongering and racism. I believe our music and friendship will continue to grow in our hope for it to spread mutual admiration and love for our native cultures and our shared love of the incredible cultures all around the world. May culture and love win over the inhumanity of nationhood and corporate profit-seeking. 

Through the fusion of guzheng and banjo—and the stories they carry—Fei and Washburn offer a vision of what’s possible when friendship, authenticity, and art lead the way. Together, they remind us that music knows no borders.