Posted on 03/09/2024 7:47:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
Busker Michael Lee is a familiar figure on Orchard Road, playing 6-8 hours every day on an ancient Chinese instrument few might recognise. A professional performer all his life, he tells CNA Lifestyle how his passion for the sheng took him beyond Singapore’s shores and back.
very day on the Orchard Road thoroughfare, in front of Wisma Atria or Takashimaya, busker Michael Lee unpacks an instrument few would be familiar with – a cluster of several dozen bamboo and metal pipes large and small, the metal looking distinctly hand-hammered.
He raises the instrument to his lips and takes a deep breath. His weathered fingers moving over the holes on the pipes, Secret Garden’s You Raise Me Up flows from the instrument, with a few improvised jazz-inspired turns. As he continues to play, the crowd around him grows.
The 69-year-old has been a staple on Singapore's busking scene for the past nine years, and his chosen instrument is the sheng, an instrument with a 3,000-year history.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com ...
Smashed to bits if he ever played in the New York subway system.
It sounds nice, however.
It is a lovely sounding instrument. That one is unusually large, but I’m sure that lends to its sound.
I bet learning that thing on one’s own wasn’t easy, nor fabricaring it.
Wow! What an interesting instrument and sound. Remarkable.
Twenty years ago I was in Washington Square Park (in NYC) on a Saturday night with a friend. A busker had somehow brought a grand piano to the park, and was playing it. Not part of an official sponsored show. Just one of many buskers in various corners of the park.
You could do that then. I don't think you could do that today.
.
A busker I fell in love with.
Quebec Boardwalk - Pachelbel’s Canon - On Glasses
https://youtu.be/UzVwp2rSJeQ
Never saw this type of violin before.
Alessandro Tanannsache - Street Musician in Target Parking Lot
https://youtu.be/wnML9z8-dy4
My favorite indoor busker because he plays his own compositions for cancer patients. A truly good man who can’t read music but “remembers” what he composed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB2Ni2v2Sf4
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.