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.