Liang Profile 2010
Photo: Ron Jones

"One of the most exciting voices in New Music"
(The Wire)

"Hauntingly beautiful and sonically colorful"
(The New York Times)

“Far, far out of the ordinary...brilliantly original and inarguably gorgeous”
(The Washington Post)


Lei Liang
(b.1972) is a Chinese-born American composer whose orchestral, chamber and stage works have been performed throughout the world. Winner of the 2011 Rome Prize, Lei Liang is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Aaron Copland Award. He was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert for the inaugural concert of the CONTACT! new music series.

Commissions and performances come from the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Heidelberger Philharmonisches Orchester, the Thailand Philharmonic, pipa virtuoso Wu Man, the Fromm Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, the National Endowment for the Arts, MAP Fund, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Manhattan Sinfonietta, Arditti Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, New York New Music Ensemble and Boston Musica Viva. Lei Liang’s music is recorded on Mode, New World, Innova, Telarc, GM, Einstein, Spektral, and Naxos (forthcoming) Records. As a scholar, he is active in the research and preservation of traditional Asian music.

Lei Liang studied composition with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Robert Cogan, Chaya Czernowin, and Mario Davidovsky, and received degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (BM and MM) and Harvard University (PhD). A Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, he held fellowships from Harvard Society of Fellows and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships. Lei Liang taught in China as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Shaanxi Normal University College of Arts in Xi'an; served as Honorary Professor of Composition and Sound Design at Wuhan Conservatory of Music and as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Middlebury College. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego. Lei Liang’s music is published exclusively by Schott Music Corporation (New York).

Lei Liang lives in Rome, Italy with his wife, harpsichordist Takae Ohnishi and their son Albert Shin Liang.