Born in Hunan, China, Aug 18, 1957
- Tan Dun is a Grammy and Oscar-winning composer and conductor.
- Dun spent his early life working as a rice planter and performer of Peking opera during China’s Cultural Revolution. He encountered Western classical music for the first time while studying at Beijing’s Central Conservatory and soon became a leading composer of contemporary music in China.
- As a composer, Dun’s oeuvre includes opera, chamber works, and orchestral compositions known for breaking down barriers between classical music and multimedia performance while beautifully incorporating Eastern and Western traditions.
- His score for Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) won the composer both a Grammy and an Oscar.1
- In 2018, Dun was appointed dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
- In addition to his Grammy and Academy awards, Dun has earned the Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement.2
Sources
- “Tan Dun,” Columbia University World Leaders Forum (2006), accessed May 17, 2023, https://worldleaders.columbia.edu/directory/tan-dun.
- “Bard Appoints World-Renowned Composer and Conductor Tan Dun as Dean of the Conservatory of Music,” Bard College (2018), accessed May 17, 2023, https://www.bard.edu/news/details/?id=11915.