Twelve Girls and a new sound

WANG Xiaojing was a man with a dream. One of China’s most successful rock producers, he was inspired by the international success of New Age artists such as Yanni to believe that something similar might be done with Chinese artists.

“I thought if it would be possible to combine traditional Chinese music with Western music, that might be fantastic,” Wang says, speaking through a translator from his home in Beijing. “I was thinking how to do this, and I thought: If we have all of these beautiful girls on the stage, that would make a performance that was visual as well as musical.”

The result was Twelve Girls Band, which brings its technical prowess to the Southland this weekend for two dates.

Formed in 2001, the group consists of 13 young women playing traditional Chinese instruments (the extra player is apparently an alternate, in case someone can’t make a show), backed by a six-man Western-style rhythm section of drums, percussion, keyboards, bass and electric guitar. The result is something like an Asian Gipsy Kings or Riverdance, except that the Girls play a far more eclectic range of music: not only traditional and modern Chinese melodies, but also excerpts from Mozart, Handel and Rossini, Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five,” songs by Coldplay and Sting, and an album’s worth of Christmas carols.

Such fusions may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there is no denying the group’s high level of instrumental skill. While Wang chose the members for their looks as much as their musicianship, China’s conservatories have produced far more players than can easily find jobs in a culture that is turning more and more toward Western music. When he announced that he was auditioning female musicians, he got more than 200 applicants.

Zhou Jiannan was one of them. “Before, I played only traditional music,” she says, speaking in accented but clear English. “So I wanted to try this, because I think it is a good challenge for me. The company had a big hall with many girls, and after I played in there, maybe they think I played very well -- so I joined my band.”

Zhou is one of the star soloists and has also partially arranged some pieces, such as “High Mountain and Floating Water” from the new “Shanghai” CD (Manhattan Records). She plays the guzheng, a 25-string zither similar to the Japanese koto. “When I was a child most people liked Western music, like violin or piano,” she says. “But my parents decided, ‘You are Chinese girl, so you should play Chinese music.’ So I choose the guzheng, because it is maybe the No. 1 instrument in Chinese music.

“I started when I was about 8, and the first time it was very difficult to me, but after one year I liked it, and continued to play. Then I graduated from a special music school, like Juilliard in New York.”

Other members of the group play erhu, a relative of the violin, pipa, a sort of lute, yangqin, a hammered dulcimer, and various traditional flutes. These instruments were designed to play scales and microtones that are foreign to the Western tonal system, and the combination of these Eastern sounds with the Euro-American selections gives the group its special flavor.

“Some of the older generation say that this is not Chinese music anymore,” Wang says. “But I think it is a unique approach, and most people like it very much.” He adds that, having already made two successful tours of the United States, he is now ready to try something a bit different. “I think many Westerners would also like to hear the pure Chinese music, so the next album will just have 100% Chinese instruments, without any backing band, and traditional music.”

Meanwhile, Zhou has been pleased to find that at least some conservative listeners can appreciate the band’s innovations. “My parents are very happy,” she says. “Maybe when I was a child they wanted me to play traditional music and classical music, but right now they already changed their mind and they love our music too.”

weekend@latimes.com

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Twelve Girls Band

Friday: 8 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave., L.A. $30 to $60. (323) 665-5857.

Tuesday: 8 p.m. at the Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. $45 to $55. (714) 712-2700.