挥洒艺术 潇洒人生——记中国的“合唱妈妈”吴灵芬

Wu Lingfen, China's "Chorus Mother"

回顾那些站在历史关头奏响黄钟大吕、领唱时代大风的大师们,因他们将毕生精力与时代命运紧密地联系在一起,已经或终将把自己的名字嵌入历史。吴灵芬教授对中国合唱事业所做的贡献足以跻身其中。就如同把周广仁先生称为中国的＂钢琴妈妈＂一样,把吴灵芬教授称为中国的＂合唱妈妈＂,名至实归。

Just as Prof. Zhou Guangren is called China's ″ Piano Mother″, Prof. Wu Lingfen is called China's ″Chorus Mother″, and she indeed deserves the title. As the leading person in the choral art in today's China, she represents the highest level of chorus development in China with her outstanding chorus conducting and academic achievements. She founded a conducting department majored in chorus conducting, the first ever in China, and with her profound knowledge and rich teaching theory, and also benefiting from foreign counterparts, she has created a conducting talent education system which is parallel with China's chorus development. For thirty years, Prof. Wu has not only conducted top-level concerts, but also has helped promote choral art among the general public. Undoubtedly, she has made tremendous contributions to the popularization, promotion and development of chorus in China, and because of this she enjoys high esteem and love in the chorus circle, and she is a real ″Chorus Mother″ in the country. Being a versatile artist, Prof. Wu Lingfen not only teaches and gives performances, but also gives lectures on chorus to the general public. Her former teacher Zheng Xiaoying refers to her as ″a brave woman″ with high ability, and she calls herself ″ a flying pigeon″ that flies to whichever places that need her for the sake of chorus, regardless of hardship and benefits. In a letter to Zheng Xiaoying in July 2010, she wrote affectionately: ″I remember those years when you and Mr. Li Delun visited all the universities for 'promoting' chorus, and as a result of all your efforts at that time, remarkable achievements have been made so far in China's chorus. And now I have the better understanding that there is so profound knowledge on chorus, and I have figured out why the West and Japan have made so much effort to train chorus conductors. I will do the same, together with the younger generation, to 'promote' chorus, so as to fulfill my promise I made in 1990, i.e. promoting among the public, training the audience, lobbying to top officials and gaining more support. I will be carrying on my task of chorus education.″ Today, having retired from her position, she has not stopped her work, but rather continues her courses for training high -level chorus conductors based on conducting education at the China Conservatory of Music, and besides she has started a new mission, in cooperation with art universities and colleges in other provinces and cities, to set up or improve chorus conductingteaching mechanism by introducing the good experiences of the Conducting Department of the China Conservatory of Music. At the same time, she is busy participating in international chorus exchanges and trainings, and appears more frequently on domestic and foreign stages. So one might see such touching scenes over and over again: when everyone else is enjoying weekends, she is still traveling on a plane, working ceaselessly for the blooming of China's chorus cause.