Influence of 12 Girls Band

The Twelve Girls Band takes 1500 years of Chinese musical tradition and makes it contemporary. By fusing traditional instruments with modern harmonies and vibrant performances, they create a sound that crosses all cultural barriers, bringing unique tonal colors not only to their own compositions, but western standards as well. Each member is conservatory trained and a veteran of top orchestras, including the China Academy of Music, the Chinese National Orchestra and the Central Conservatory of Music. All members are multi-instrumentalists, and perform with classic instruments such as the gu zheng (ancient zither with movable bridges and 16-25 strings) pipa (four-stringed lute with pear shaped body) yang qin (Chinese hammered dulcimer with a near-square soundboard), ehru (two stringed Chinese fiddle) and dizi (bamboo flute) along with other traditional instruments. Their influences range far and wide, weaving jazz and pop styles into classical Chinese music. The group's appeal is equally as broad, with children, teens, adults and even grandparents filling arenas to see the Twelve Girls Bandperform. The group presents a strong new voice for global music culture. That voice has been heard loud and clear, as Twelve Girls Band emerges as the most successful act on the international stage. In Japan alone, the band's debut album remained at the top of the charts for 30 weeks and sold more than 2 million copies. A Japanese DVD of the Twelve Girls Band live in concert sold over 200,000 copies and has been telecast around the world. This year they were named "International Artist of the Year" at the 2004 Japan Golden Disc Award ceremonies. Past recipients of this honorary award include Madonna, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. The band's origin help explain this remarkable success. To begin with, twelve is an important figure in Chinese numerology. There are twelve months in a year, twelve "jinchai" (or golden hairpins, representing womanhood) in ancient Chinese mythology. When producer Xiaojing Wang - known as the father of Chinese rock music - had the idea for an all female ensemble, he knew it had to have twelve members. For inspiration, The Twelve Girls Band turned to the art of Yue Fang, the female ensembles that played in the royal courts of the Tang Dynasty, centuries ago. By playing modern arrangements on classical instruments,Twelve Girls Band crafted something unique in world music. Considering the global success of crossover artists like Enya, The Buena Vista Social Club and Riverdance, there's every reason to expect the exhilarating style of the Twelve Girls Band to strike a similar chord in North America. With Eastern Energy, the Twelve Girls Band rises to a new level of artistry. Like their debut cd, the new album features the compositions of Chinese composer/arranger Jianfeng Liang. In addition to his originals, the cd also contains covers of Coldplay's Grammy Award winning "Clocks" as well as Enya's "Only Time" and "Reel Around The Sun" from the international theatrical smash hit, Riverdance. The Twelve Girls Band is set to launch their promotional tour of North America in the summer of 2004, coinciding with the release of Eastern Energy on August 17th. For those who believe in the power of music to bring people on this planet closer together, Twelve Girls Band will be a driving force from one of the world's oldest cultures. Their beautiful music will extend a hand acros

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