Wang tries to make the clarinet fashionable

Clarinetist Wang Tao experiments with music of classical, pop, jazz and rock in his latest album, Night & Day. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Wang Tao is among a handful of clarinetists in China who are now making a mark.

He is the first musician in China to receive a master's degree in clarinet from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, a top music school in the country.

Wang has released 12 albums that are being used as teaching material at the conservatory. He also won the best instrumental-album award at the Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan.

As the husband of former Olympic gymnastics champion Liu Xuan, he is used to being pursued by the media.

But last year, when he sent producers some 40 music samples from his new record company, Universal Music, the feedback he got caught him off guard.

While the young musician had expected positive reactions, he was told the samples were "interesting" or "disastrous".

"It's something I have never experienced before," says Wang, 37, who was considered gifted since his childhood. "I didn't feel depressed. Instead, I was excited because I knew that it's time for me to change."

After a year of preparation, Wang surprised many by releasing his latest album, Night & Day, in Beijing last month.

Instead of showing off sophisticated techniques and playing his well-known works, Wang presented 10 tracks with the clarinet in a leading role, supported by pop, rock and jazz.

The album was recorded in Taipei, London, Boston and Beijing, which saw Wang cooperate with international musicians.

"I wanted to portray an ordinary day in our lives with music that's natural and real," he says.

In the first track of his album, Red Lips, Wang portrays a traffic jam in the late afternoon. The appearance of the clarinet reminds listeners of flickering neon lamps and taillights of cars on city streets.

In another work, Xipi, Wang starts the music with an extract of a Peking Opera piece.

Living and working in the capital for the past 20 years, Wang says that one of his favorite scenes in the city is watching elderly people sing Peking Opera at public parks.

First Sorrow, which he wrote in school about his first love, was recorded at 4 am in Taipei. During the recording, he was immersed in the deep, melancholic music. After he finished the last note, the light of the sun entered his room in a dramatic way, with all the people present clapping together.

"Music has wings. Before I collaborated with the musicians and producers for the album, I didn't know them. But they knew about my music. When we perform together, the music flows naturally, like friends chatting," he says.

Unlike his previous works, Wang has added vocal singing in his compositions. For example, in Good Times, he invited his childhood friend, pop singer Tan Weiwei, to perform with him.

In Raining, he has his wife and their infant son contributing with their voices.

Ever since he first performed onstage at the age of 9, Wang, who also studied the cello and erhu (a two-stringed bowed instrument) in childhood, has wanted to make music his career.

In 2011, Wang studied with two-time Grammy-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman as his first Chinese student at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, which is among the oldest independent schools of music in the United States.

Two years later, he returned to Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing as a teacher.

Garand Wu, the managing director of Universal Music China, says the reason why the company hopes to work with Wang is that he has worked with various art forms, including ballet, folk music and drama.

"The clarinet is not as popular as the piano or the violin in China. It's often associated with older musical styles. We hope to bring it to any kind of scenario to find its place now," says Wu.