But, in the 1920s a musician-composer named Liu Tianhua, who played erhu and violin, began arranging erhu music for solo performance and the instrument earned belated respect. Ma Xiaohui has helped bring about the erhu's renewed popularity and in turn has benefited from the phenomenon. Unlike the mostly female pop stars who have begun integrating erhu into their music, Ma is a classically trained musician who began playing erhu when she was six. She serves as concertmaster of the Shanghai Orchestra of Traditional Music and maintains a busy international solo career that includes frequent collaborations with the German pianist Tim Ovens. Ma is utterly devoted to the erhu, determined to strengthen its image, expand its repertoire, and build its audience.
People always say erhu is very sad.
But, I say it's very warm instead. I think it's a lot like Chinese people - smart, difficult, sensitive. Erhu is not perfect - we don't have four strings like a violin. But, it can occupy your heart. One of the major problems that faces erhu players, like all musicians who play traditional instruments, is the lack of new compositions.