Verge,
commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and its Music Director, Alan
Gilbert, was premiered on Dec 17, 2009 at the
Philharmonic's inaugural "CONTACT!" new music series,
conducted by Magnus Lindberg. The Strad magazine describes the piece as "a
highlight of the concert."
Lei receives a Guggenheim Fellowship (2009-2010), as well as
grants from Meet the Composer and Chamber Music America.
Portrait CD "Brush-Stroke" is released by
Mode Records (find it on
Amazon). Brian Morton of
The
Wire writes, "Lei Liang strips
cultural identity of nationalistic, and even
hemispheric, agenda...Lei Liang is an important musical
philosopher, coming into mature expression."
Saxophone quartet YUAN,
performed by the PRISM Quartet, is released by
Innova Records. James Keller of
Chamber
Music calls Lei Liang's
Yuan
"a 15-minute
tour de force....a dense example of profound
cross-culturalism."
Lei's next portrait CD will be released by
New World Records in 2011 funded in part
through a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music,
Inc.