Nationality: Chinese

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.²
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.³

Pieces

Violin Concerto: Rhapsody and Fantasia

20th Century Chinese

HE Luting

Born in Shaoyangong, Hunan, July 20, 1903
Died April 27, 1999

Note: He is the composer’s surname and Luting is his given name.

A guide for pronouncing Chinese names

He Luting was one of the most influential classical musicians and educators in 20th-century China.⁴
He directed the Shanghai Conservatory from 1949 to 1984, with an interruption during the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong, when the government suppressed what were deemed Western influences, including Western classical music.⁵
- Like many Chinese intellectuals, He was persecuted by the government during the Cultural Revolution. He was particularly targeted for his defense of the music of Debussy. He Luting was the only person who was subjected to a “struggle session” (torture and interrogation) on live public television. He came to be seen as hero for intellectual freedom in China.⁶
He Luting’s compositions include patriotic works, film scores, operas, and orchestral works. He frequently combined Chinese folk melodies with Western harmonization.⁷

Pieces

The Cowherd’s Flute

20th Century Chinese

HUANZHI Li

Photo courtesy of Portland Youth Philharmonic; photo by Li Dakang

Born in Hong Kong, 2 January 1919
Died in Beijing, 19 March 2000

[Pronunciation]

Pieces

Spring Festival Overture

Contemporary Chinese

JIPING, Zhao

Image courtesy of The Violin Channel

Born in Pingliang, Gansu, Aug, 1945

Zhao Jiping is a folk-inspired composer and educator most well-known for his film scores, including Raise the Red Lantern (1991), To Live (1994), and Farewell My Concubine (1993).
- Zhao first gained notoriety for his score for Yellow Earth (1984).
- He is considered to be one of the foremost composers in China.⁸

Learn More

Short biography from ChinaCulture.org

Pieces

20th Century Chinese

MA Sicong

Born in Haifeng, Guangdong province, May 7, 1912
Died in Philadelphia, May 20, 1987

Note: the composer’s surname is Ma and his given name is Sicong.

A guide for pronouncing Chinese names

Ma studied violin and composition in France, and served on the faculties of conservatories in China, including his position as head of the Central Conservatory from 1950 until the mid 1960s.
Ma emigrated to the United States in 1966 to escape persecution during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
Ma’s works include symphonies, a ballet, and patriotic songs.⁹

Biographical article from ArtsJournal

Pieces

Contemporary American Chinese

SHENG, Bright

Composer Website

Born in Shanghai, Dec 6, 1955

Sheng was educated at the Shanghai Conservatory, Queens College CUNY, and and Columbia University. Leonard Bernstein was one of his teachers.
Sheng has served as Composer in Residence for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Seattle SO, and he teaches at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
China’s Cultural Revolution took place before Sheng had the chance to attend conservatory. During that time, from the age of 15, he was assigned to work in a traditional Chinese orchestra in a province bordering Tibet. He also spent this time studying Chinese folk music.¹⁰

Pieces

Black Swan (after Brahms’s Intermezzo No. 2)

20th Century Chinese

XIAN Xinghai

Born in Macao, June 13, 1905
Died in Moscow, Oct 30, 1945

Note that Xian is the composer’s surname. It is appropriate to refer to him as Xian Xinghai or Xian, not just Xinghai.

Pronunciation

Xian studied at multiple Chinese conservatories, and also studied in France with d’Indy and Dukas.
Xian was associated with the Communist party’s reformist or revolutionary school of composers, who emphasized nationalistic compositions and the use of Chinese folk music, rather than imitation of Western music.
In the late 30s Xian was head of music at the Lu Xun College of the Arts. From 1940 until his death in 1945, he was based in the Soviet Union.¹¹

Biography from the Cultural Institute of Macao

Pieces

Piano Concerto “The Yellow River”

Contemporary American Chinese

ZHOU Long

Photograph of Zhou Long courtesy of White Snake Records

Born in Beijing, July 8, 1953

Zhou is the composer’s surname. It is appropriate to refer to him as Zhou Long or Dr. Zhou.

Pronunciation: IPA [dʒoʊ lɔŋ]
Pronunciation: Phonetic “jo long”

A guide for pronouncing Chinese names

Dr. Zhou is a contemporary Chinese-American composer whose music combines Chinese folk influences and modernist classical influences.
Zhou grew during the Cultural Revolution, when Western influences (including music) were discouraged. For this reason, he spent part of his childhood working on a state farm.
Zhou studied at the Beijing Conservatory when it was reopened after the Cultural Revolution, and he completed his doctorate at Columbia University.
Zhou teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas Conservatory of Music.
Zhou is married to the composer Chen Yi.¹²
Biography from Oxford University Press