Wu Wei, a renowned soloist of the traditional Chinese mouth-organ sheng, will hit the stage Friday night as part of Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s two-day “Ars Nova” contemporary music concert series.

The 4,000-year-old woodwind folk instrument is a rare sight in today’s music scene, with an equally rare-sounding instrumental pitch to match.

“The sounds of the sheng are very mysterious and the skills it takes to play this instrument are not something that can easily be explained,” said SPO composer-in-residence Chin Un-suk during a press conference held at the SPO practice room Tuesday.  

The first of the two concerts -- titled “Sounding the Century” and to be held Friday at the LG Arts Center -- will feature the world premiere of Finnish composer Jukka Tiensuu’s “Concerto for Sheng and Orchestra,” under the directorship of Ilan Volkov.

The program also includes two Asian premieres -- Anders Hillborg’s “Eleven Gate” and Friedrich Goldmann’s “Konzertstuck for Orchestra,” and two Korean premieres -- Ravel’s “L’eventail de Jeanne” and Webern’s “Six Orchestral Pieces, Op. 6.”

Following Friday’s show, the Ars Nova series’ second performance, “High & Low,” will be held on Nov. 5.

The concert will feature the sounds of the Korean sheng, played by local traditional musician Gamin.

“Unlike the 37-pipe sheng that Wu plays, the traditional Korean sheng has only 17 pipes, so the sounds and playing techniques are very different,” Gamin explained.

The November concert will once again introduce a number of musicals firsts for the local audience with three Asian premieres -- Tiensuu’s “Nous for Five Musicians,” “Jeongkyu Park’s “Into...” and Michael Daugherty’s “Sinatra Shag.”

Ticket prices to “Sounding the Century” range from 10,000 won ($8.80) to 50,000 won, while tickets to “High & Low” are listed from 10,000 won to 30,000 won. For more information, call 1588-1210.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)