As part of the college’s 40th anniversary, Clare Hall have invited internationally renowned Chinese musician Cheng Yu to perform this Sunday evening.

The sold-out concert celebrates the beginning of Chinese New Year as part of the Divertimenti series of world music. The series has previously featured players from the Mediterranean, Crete, India, the Middle-East and Iran.

Cheng Yu will be playing the Chinese pipa lute and the guqin zither, instruments which have been played in China for over 2000 years. She started playing the pipa at the age of seven, studying with her father during her family’s exile in the Gobi desert during the cultural revolution in China.

On return to Bejing she won the "outstanding pipa player" award in China and was selected as a pipa soloist in the China Central Orchestra of Chinese Music in Beijing.

She now teaches and does research in Chinese music at the University of London, as well as performing worldwide.

The international-themed celebrations reflect Clare Hall’s tradition for creating ties with academics from across the globe. When it was founded in 1964 the college was intended to be a community for graduate students, scholars and their families, as well as visiting fellows from foreign countries.

40 years on the college has students and fellows from 43 different countries working there.

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