Urna Chahar Tugchi, known as Urna, (born 1969) is an Inner Mongolian singer and player of the

yangqin The trapezoidal yangqin () is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 (lit. "foreign zither"), but over time the first character changed t ...

Biography

Urna was born into a family of herders in the grasslands of the

Ordos Plateau The Ordos Plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin or simply the Ordos, is a highland sedimentary basin in northwest China with an elevation of , and consisting mostly of land enclosed by the Ordos Loop, a large northerly rectangular bend of the Y ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

, a society where song was a ubiquitous part of everyday life. Her first musical training was learning to play the

—Chinese

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

—from a

Shanghai Conservatory of Music The Shanghai Conservatory of Music () was founded on November 27, 1927, as the first music institution of higher education in China. Its teachers and students have won awards at home and abroad, thus earning the conservatory the name "the crad ...

professor who was visiting Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. Then, at the age of 18, she moved to study at the Shanghai Conservatory, a challenging step since she had no knowledge of the

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

. She now performs around the world, and is based in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, Germany and in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, Egypt. In 2003, she was awarded the RUTH prize in Germany for Best International Artist.

Discography and filmography

Urna has produced seven albums of music on CD: *1995 – ''Tal Nutag'' (13 tracks) – with

Robert Zollitsch Robert Zollitsch (born 9 August 1938) is a German prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau from 2003 to 2013 and was Chairman of the German Episcopal Conference from 2008 to 2014. Life and work Zollitsc ...

(

zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat ...

) and Oliver Kälberer (guitar, mandolin) – recorded in a Bavarian church, Mongolian songs and improvisations *1997 – Crossing *1999 – ''Hödööd'' (11 tracks) – with Robert Zollitsch (zither, vocal, percussion),

Wu Wei ''Wu wei'' () is an ancient Chinese concept literally meaning "inexertion", "inaction", or "effortless action". ''Wu wei'' emerged in the Spring and Autumn period, and from Confucianism, to become an important concept in Chinese statecraft and T ...

playing the Sheng and Sebastian Hilken playing the cello and the frame drum – Mongolian songs and original compositions *2001 – ''Jamar'' (10 tracks) – with Robert Zollitsch playing the zither and throat-singing,

Morin khuur The ''morin khuur'' ( mn, морин хуур, morin khuur), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered ...

-virtuoso Burintegus and

Ramesh Shotham Ramesh Shotham (born May 7, 1948 in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India) is a percussionist and drummer. Life Ramesh Shotham was born in Madras, South India. He graduated with a degree in zoology from Loyola College, University of Madras. He began his m ...

(Indian percussion) – lyrics in Chinese and Mongolian *2002 – Hodood *2004 – ''Amilal'' (13 tracks) – with Djamchid and Keyvan Chemirani, Zarb percussionists from Iran and Zoltan Lantos (Violin) – a personal record of her travels and her world view *2012 – Portrait d'URNA: Tenggeriin Shivuu *2018 – ''Ser'' (12 tracks) – with

Kroke Kroke is a Polish instrumental ensemble of world music. The band's name refers to the Yiddish language name for Kraków (, ). The band was founded in 1992 by three friends and graduates of the Academy of Music in Kraków. Initially, they we ...

She is also featured in the film Two Horses of Genghis Khan.

Reception

Andrea Murray's description in ''

The Herald-Times ''The Herald-Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Bloomington, Indiana and surrounding areas. The newspaper won the Blue Ribbon Daily award in 1975, 1984 2007, and 2014, naming it the best daily newspaper in the state of Indiana in those years. ...

'' of one of her performances gives an intriguing insight into the extraordinary characteristics of her singing:

References

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External links

Urna Chahar Tugchi official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urna 20th-century Mongolian women singers 21st-century Mongolian women singers Shanghai Conservatory of Music alumni 1969 births Living people