Wu Wei, born April 29, 1970, in Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province, is a Chinese instrumental virtuoso of the traditional Chinese musical instruments Sheng and Erhu in improvisational music, new music, and jazz, and a composer. He studied the traditional Chinese mouth organ, Sheng, at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and became a soloist with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. In 1995, Wu Wei moved to Berlin on a DAAD scholarship to study at the Hanns Eisler School of Music. He has since performed at major festivals worldwide and collaborated with notable orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Wu Wei premiered over 280 works, including ten concertos for Sheng and orchestra by composers like John Cage and Chin Un-suk. He received the first prize at the Musica Vitale World Music Competition in 1996 and 2002, and the Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2011. His discography includes Erratic Wish Machine (2015) with Stefan Schultze - Large Ensemble and Silk Baroque (2019).
