NPR's Fred Child is on stage at the Bishop's School in La Jolla, Calif., for SummerFest 2004. He visits with cellist Hai-Ye Ni. She plays the Sarabande and Gigue from Bach's cello suite no. 3, and the Tibetan Dance from Seven Tunes Heard in China by Bright Sheng.
Composer Bright Sheng wrote "Seven Tunes" specifically for Ni's solo cello, but at first glance, the cellist pronounced the work unplayable. She felt the technical demands of the piece, particularly its complexity, needed to be drawn down. Over several years, Sheng revised the work to accomodate his virtuoso.
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