Shana Tova! Happy Rosh Hashanah if you celebrate the Jewish new year! It will be the year 5786 beginning at sundown on the eve of September 22, 2025. I thought the Chinese new year was old :)
As I’m preparing my first trip to the Baltic coast to play with the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra in Lithuania, I just learned something absolutely amazing after googling “Lithuanian and Latvian folk music”. As a guzheng musician, I’m over joyed by this discovery:
“The kanklės (Lithuanian, photo 1) ) is a Lithuanian plucked string instrument belonging to the Balticbox zither family known as the Baltic psaltery, along with the Latvian kokles (photo 2). Estonian kannel, Finnish kantele, and Russian gusli”
Today’s piece is inspired by all of these instruments. I must find out more about the history of all the plucked zithers!
In the video below is the Latvian national instrument kokle ensemble "Teiksma" plays Latvian folk song "Jūrā gāju naudas gūt". This song is about sea and about people lost in the sea.
My daily music newsletter will resume on October 1st after I come back from Europe. Thank you for your support and patience again!
If you or your friends are in the Baltic Sea region, hope to see you at my debut concert. You can find out more and get tickets here.
Wish you all a wonderful week!
Wu Fei 吴非
Wufeimusic.com
