Dr Lu Liu
Ethnomusicology Discipline Lead, Intercultural Music
Dr LIU Lu 刘璐 (also known as Lulu Liu) is a performer, researcher and educator. Her main focus is Chinese musical culture, specializing in the music and history of thepipa. Career highlights include performing for an audience of 7000 at the ‘World Peace’ Outdoor Festival in South Korea, and featuring on the long-running BBC Radio Program ‘On the Wire’. Lulu was invited to perform in the first production of ‘Play me a story: Nutcracker’ at the Sydney Opera House in 2014, as well as re-run performances at music festivals in Victoria in 2015, New South Wales in 2016, and a Sydney Opera House season in 2017. Her recent performances include “Road of Sonic Voyage” (with pipa virtuoso Professor Zhang Qiang from the Central Conservatory of Music, China) (2019), “Hectic Jacaranda” with colleagues from Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Guangzhou, China (2019). In 2022, she was invited to performing pipa in the world premiere “The Butterfly Lovers” with Victorian Opera and Singapore’s Wild Rice Theatre. She has released two solo albums, three collaborative albums and also performed on the soundtrack to the movie ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’. As a researcher, her works have published by Asian Musicology, Routledge and Cambridge University Press.She has contributed a growing number of articles and chapters in journals and books while continuing to perform new pipa works by contemporary composers.
As a performer-researcher, Lulu’s role of intercultural collaboration is a driving focus in her research portfolio. Her diverse interests of research include:
- Music Performance
- Music Composition
- Musicology and Ethnomusicology
- Australian-Chinese music studies
- Diaspora musicians
- Intercultural music studies
- Historical Informed Performance
- Cultural Diversity in Music Education
- Global Inequalities in Higher Education and the Arts
- Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies
- Creative Arts, Media and Communication Curriculum and Pedagogy
- Archival, Repository and Related Studies
- Australian History
Lulu was recently organised in a four-way collaboration between herself, Chinese pipa virtuoso Zhang Qiang, Russian-Australian guitarist Vladimir Gorbach, and Australian composer Damien Ricketson, a subsequent article is being prepared for publication based on this collaboration with an emphasis on the newly developing field of performance as research. She was commissioned to develop the pipa program modules for a scientific research project with Macquarie University along with oud player Hamed Sadeghi in 2021. This project aims to investigate the psychosocial benefits of learning a non-western musical instruments in nurturing intercultural understanding.
Coordinator of all Chinese Music Ensemble units (PERF 2604-2605/3606-3609).
Coordinator of Understanding East Asian Music (MCGY3602)
"Intercultural Engagement and Aural Skills Acquisition: An Exploration of East Asian Music Theory" with Dr Alex Chilvers.
“Innovative Compositional Practice: A Discussion of the Processes of Intercultural Collaboration Involving the Chinese Pipa” for the Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities (JOSAH)
- Association for Asian Studies
- Australian Society for Asian Humanities
- Association for Chinese Music Research
- British Forum for Ethnomusicology
- International Council for Traditional Music
- Musicological Society of Australia
- Society for Ethnomusicology
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| An ethnography of contemporary Chinese traditional music practice in Melbourne Australia | Chengyu ZHANG |
| Navigating Cross-Cultural Dialogues in Contemporary Chinese Piano Composition: Stereotypes, Reception, Nationalism and the Influence of Béla Bartók | Yun ZHOU |
Publications
Book Chapters
- Ng, N., Liu, L., Ingram, C. (2024). Chinese Music Performance in Australia. In Harris, A., Bracknell, C. (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia, (pp. 261-279). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
- Ingram, C., Liu, L., Ng, N. (2021). Falling Leaves and New Roots: Informed Practice Within the Sydney Conservatorium of Music's Chinese Music Ensemble. In Anna Reid, Neal Peres Da Costa, Jeanell Carrigan (Eds.), Creative Research in Music: Informed Practice, Innovation and Transcendence, (pp. 73-81). New York: Routledge. [More Information]
- Liu, L. (2020). Beijing in the Contemporary Pipa World. In Keith Howard and Catherine Ingram (Eds.), Presence Through Sound: Music and Place in East Asia, (pp. 58-71). Abingdon: Routledge. [More Information]
Journals
- Liu, L., Garcia-Cuesta, S., Chambers, L., Tchirkov, S., Hebert, D. (2024). Rethinking “musical excellence” from a decolonial perspective: Disruptive autobiographical experiences among doctoral scholars. International Journal of Music Education. [More Information]
- Liu, L. (2023). Book review: A contemporary history of the Chinese zheng. Asian Studies Review. [More Information]
- Liu, L. (2023). Innovative compositional practice: A discussion of the processes of intercultural collaboration involving the Chinese pipa. JOSAH: Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities, 54, 60-85. [More Information]
Music
- Liu, L., Zhang, X. (2023). Music of the Past in the Modern World. Sydney, Australia: China Studies Centre. [More Information]
- Liu, L. (2019). Hectic Jacaranda. Hectic Jacaranda. Xinghai Conservatory of Music (Concert Hall), Guangzhou, China (excludes SARs and Taiwan Province): Xinghai Conservatory of Music.
- Liu, L., Zhang, Q. (2019). The Road of Sonic Voyage. Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, Australia. [More Information]
Recorded / Rendered Performance
- Liu, L., Gorbach, V. (2020). Hectic Jacaranda. On Hectic Jacaranda: for pipa, guitar and electronics, Online video recording, Sydney, Australia: Curious Noise. [More Information]
2024
- Ng, N., Liu, L., Ingram, C. (2024). Chinese Music Performance in Australia. In Harris, A., Bracknell, C. (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia, (pp. 261-279). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
- Liu, L., Garcia-Cuesta, S., Chambers, L., Tchirkov, S., Hebert, D. (2024). Rethinking “musical excellence” from a decolonial perspective: Disruptive autobiographical experiences among doctoral scholars. International Journal of Music Education. [More Information]
2023
- Liu, L. (2023). Book review: A contemporary history of the Chinese zheng. Asian Studies Review. [More Information]
- Liu, L. (2023). Innovative compositional practice: A discussion of the processes of intercultural collaboration involving the Chinese pipa. JOSAH: Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities, 54, 60-85. [More Information]
- Chilvers, A., Liu, L. (2023). Intercultural dialogue and the mobilisation of aural skills. Music Education Research. [More Information]
2021
- Ingram, C., Liu, L., Ng, N. (2021). Falling Leaves and New Roots: Informed Practice Within the Sydney Conservatorium of Music's Chinese Music Ensemble. In Anna Reid, Neal Peres Da Costa, Jeanell Carrigan (Eds.), Creative Research in Music: Informed Practice, Innovation and Transcendence, (pp. 73-81). New York: Routledge. [More Information]
2020
- Liu, L. (2020). Beijing in the Contemporary Pipa World. In Keith Howard and Catherine Ingram (Eds.), Presence Through Sound: Music and Place in East Asia, (pp. 58-71). Abingdon: Routledge. [More Information]
- Liu, L., Gorbach, V. (2020). Hectic Jacaranda. On Hectic Jacaranda: for pipa, guitar and electronics, Online video recording, Sydney, Australia: Curious Noise. [More Information]
2019
- Liu, L. (2019). Hectic Jacaranda. Hectic Jacaranda. Xinghai Conservatory of Music (Concert Hall), Guangzhou, China (excludes SARs and Taiwan Province): Xinghai Conservatory of Music.
- Liu, L., Zhang, Q. (2019). The Road of Sonic Voyage. Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, Australia. [More Information]