Mantawoman, aka Manta Arius*, is recognised as one of the world’s most innovative and accomplished yang qin players, currently based in London. They are also a bilingual singer-songwriter and polymathic performer, creating iridescent music and live shows that explore paradox, romanticism, and the freedom of surrendering to change.

Originally from San Francisco, Mantawoman was the first North American yang qin player to compete professionally in China (Baotou International Yangqin Arts Festival, 2014). They began their career playing with the Silkroad Ensemble. Their first studio recording was on a track “St. James Infirmary Blues” with Yo-Yo Ma and Rhiannon Giddens, which made Mantawoman the first yang qin player in history to feature on a GRAMMY-winning album (Sing Me Home, 2016). With Silkroad, Manta played venues such as Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, and TED.

After graduating from Harvard College in 2016 with a BA Environmental Science and Public Policy, Manta won the Marshall Scholarship, which funded two years of graduate study in the UK. Manta earned a MA Music in Development from SOAS, University of London, and a MMus Sonic Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London, studying spiritual communion with nature through music, and prototyping new songwriting techniques on yang qin.

From 2019-2023, they co-founded and co-directed the London-based music collective Tangram, premiering new works for an ensemble of Chinese and western instruments, and collaboratively winning awards such as the Genesis Kickstart Fund, Jerwood Arts Live Work Fund, and Arts Council England project grants.

In 2021, responding to far-right political escalation, Manta launched their solo project Mantawoman as a drag-inspired embodiment of radical acceptance, transformative joy, and fluidity as a healing response to fragmentation.

Mantawoman began releasing original music in 2023 with their debut EP, The Way She Makes Us Waves. Their “hypno-pop” sound blends traditional Chinese musicality and the iridescent timbre of their percussive string instrument with modern lyricism and production. The five-song chamber-pop record combines Mantawoman’s yang qin and voice with bass, drums, strings, and electronics, shifting between mesmerising melodies and adventurous improvisations.

Mantawoman won the Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant (2020), a place in the City Music Foundation Artist programme (2020), Help Musicians UK Do It Differently Fund (2021), RPS Enterprise Fund (2021), a residency at Britten Pears Arts alongside Shruthi Rajasekar (2022), the Jerwood New Work Fund (2023), and the inaugural Southbank Studio Residency (2023).

Mantawoman has headlined at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, LSO St Luke’s, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Nottingham Contemporary, Turner Contemporary, Power of Women Festival, the Divine, and QueerScore Festival.

An avid collaborator, Manta recorded on soundtracks by Ben Frost for Netflix’s 1899 and Joel P. West for Marvel’s Shang Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings. Their traditional yang qin EP Sun 陽, served as the soundtrack for Renee Zhan’s Sundance Award-winning short film, Reneepoptosis.

Manta has shared the stage with ILĀ, Johnny Gandelsman, Caroline Polachek, Wu Man, Sandeep Das, Kayhan Kalhor, Guy Sigsworth, Rhiannon Giddens, Yo-Yo Ma, and Imogen Heap.

*Manta Arius, who takes they/them and she/her pronouns, was formerly known as Reylon Yount

photo courtesy of Khalid Griffig