Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn to Perform at DROM in World Music Institute Series
The duo's Béla Fleck-produced album on Smithsonian Folkways blends guzheng, banjo, and vocals in English and Chinese.
World Music Institute will present guzheng player Wu Fei and banjo player Abigail Washburn at DROM, showcasing their decade-long collaboration blending Chinese and Appalachian musical traditions. The performance will take place at DROM on Saturday, October 17, 2026.
The ten-year artistic partnership between Wu Fei, a master of the guzheng-an ancient Chinese string instrument with a history spanning 2,500 years-and Grammy Award-winning American singer, songwriter, and banjo virtuoso Abigail Washburn embodies the spirit of WMI's Collaborations series.
Their eponymous debut album, produced by banjo legend Béla Fleck and released on Smithsonian Folkways, weaves together the traditions of two distinct musical heritages, stretching from the Appalachian hills to the Xinjiang prairies. The result is a surprisingly harmonious soundtrack, featuring Wu's guzheng melodies gracefully complementing Washburn's expressive banjo playing, with their voices blending English and Chinese dialects.
WMI's COLLABORATIONS series presents cross-cultural musical explorations and collaborations. The series often explores how the music of artists from one culture has influenced the music of another culture, or how the music of seemingly widely varying cultures can be surprisingly similar or complementary.
