The last time we saw the husband-wife team of Jing Xia and Bin Hu perform on a Tucson stage was summer 2019 when the pair headlined a concert with St. Andrew's Bach Society.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, the pair, who perform as Duo Chinoiserie, is playing a much bigger stage at Centennial Hall as part of UA Presents' The Tucson Studio series. The performance, recorded a few weeks ago, will be streamed on UA Presents YouTube, Facebook and Tucson Studios sites beginning at 6 p.m.
It is the latest in a series of weekly concerts by local musicians that UA Presents has hosted since May, not long after COVID-19 forced arts organizations to shut down and closed all venues to the public. The University of Arizona arts presenter launched The Tucson Studio to give local musicians a performance outlet, with the majority of events performed outdoors and professionally filmed and edited.
Duo Chinoiserie, formed in 2016, brings together Eastern and Western musical influences. Jing, who is a graduate student at the University of Arizona, performs on the Chinese guzheng while her husband, who earned his doctorate at the UA, plays classical guitar.
The pair has performed throughout the United States, in Spain and in China in their first four years. In their 2019 Bach Society concert, they performed works by Bach arranged for guitar and guzheng, as well as traditional Chinese songs and solo pieces.
UA Presents Executive Director Chad Herzog said the duo was initially supposed to perform outdoors, but the event was moved to Centennial Hall due to rain. The pair performed with no audience in the 2,500-seat hall, which has been shuttered since March when UA Presents and arts organizations citywide had to cancel performances in response to the pandemic.
Since its first Tucson Studios concert in May, UA Presents has hosted weekly events featuring artists of all genres. Two others performed at Centennial Hall due to bad weather, but the rest were performed in Tucson parks including Tucson Botanical Gardens.
There is no admission charge and viewers can give virtual tips to the artists during the performance.
