Liu Sola: Musician

cctv.com 07-19-2004 14:16

鈥淚 have only one life, one body, and one voice. But it is MY voice. And I hope more people can find and express their real voices.鈥 These are the words of Liu Sola. To understand Liu Sola鈥檚 words, one must first understand her journey. A musician and novelist, she traveled away from her homeland to find her own voice and develop soul. Today, her music is known internationally.

Liu Sola was born in 1955 to a high-ranking army family in the People's Republic of China and was raised by relatives in Beijing.

After a political show trial her parents had been banned to agrarian labour in the countryside for 20 years for so-called "re-education". In 1977 she was admitted to the renowned Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she studied piano and composition.

After her final examinations in 1981 she worked as a freelance writer. Her novel "Ni Bie Wu Xuanze"(You Have No Choice, 1984) soon achieved cult status among China's so-called "lost generation", young people born during and after the Cultural Revolution. In the mid-eighties Sola started a women's rock band and recorded three albums which became bestsellers not only in the People's Republic, but in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well.

In 1987, invited by the American government, she travelled to the United States, where she experienced blues and jazz for the first time. This encounter set the tone for her further artistic development. Since that time she has composed instrumental works, theatre and film music, written novels and novellas, and is working on the fusion of blues and Chinese folk music.

In September 2001 she founded the "New Folk Big Band" in Beijing, the very first Chinese improvisation ensemble.

Editor:Zhang  Source:CCTV.com