൯ TWELVE GIRLS BAND

Twelve Girls Band (traditional Chinese: 女子十二樂坊; simplified Chinese: 女子十二乐坊; pinyin: Nǚzǐ shí'èr Yùefǎng, sometimes abbreviated to 女樂 or 女乐) is a music women artists group who started with twelve members but later become thirteen, that use traditional Chinese instruments to play both traditional Chinese and Western songs. Formed on June 18, 2001, the women were selected by audition from more than 4,000 contestants. Each woman is classically-trained, and the band members come from various conservatories in the People's Republic of China (PRC), including the China Academy of Music, the Chinese National Orchestra, and the Central Conservatory of Music.

Chinese numerology gave Wang Xiao-Jing the idea for the Twelve Girls Band. When the Xiao-Jing decided he wanted to create a woman ensemble, he knew it needed 12 members. Per Chinese mythology it is the twelve jinchai (12 hairpins) representing womanhood. The twelve women that Xiao-Jing assembled were experienced musicians from the People's Republic of China's orchestras, played traditional Chinese instruments, and all were in their twenties. For the new project, the women were inspired by the art of the Yue Fang, the ensembles who played in the Tang Dynasty courts during the years A.D. 618 to 907.

The group debuted their modern compositions on ancient instruments in China and Japan during the Northern summer of 2003. Word of mouth spread, show after show were sold-out, and in Japan their debut album topped the charts for 30 weeks. Their self-titled debut was released in North America in August 2004 with cover versions of Coldplay's "Clocks" and Enya's "Only Time" included, and a massive television advertising campaign announcing the group's arrival.

Among the instruments used by the women: erhu (Chinese fiddle), pipa (pear-shaped lute), guzheng (zither), yangqin (hammered dulcimer), dizi (transverse flute), and xiao (vertical flute). Occasionally, the duxianqin (single-stringed zither) and hulusi (three-piped gourd flute) are employed.

They took 1500 years of legacy and traditional Chinese music and weave into contemporaries of pop, jazz and classical.

In July 2003, Beautiful Energy, their first album in Japan, reached the top of the J-pop chart. They won Japan Gold Disc Award in 2004.

The Twelve Girls Band toured in the United States in 2004 Miracles tour and again in 2005. In July 7, 2007 the Twelve Girls Band performed at the Chinese leg of Live Earth in Shanghai.

Bao Zhong/pipa; Bin Qu Liao/dizi,hulusi,xiao; Jian Nam Zhou/gu zheng; Jin Jiang/erhu; Jing Jing Ma/yangqin; Kun Zhang/pipa; Shuang Zhang/pipa; Song Mei Yang/yangqin; Ting Sun/erhu; Yan Yin/erhu; Ying Lei/erhu,duxiangqin; Yuan Sun/dizi,hulusi,xiao;

Whoa! I was completely blown away, fantastic..awesome