Bright Sheng (b.1955)

Bright Sheng is one of the leading composers of our time, whose stage, orchestral, chamber and vocal works are performed regularly by the greatest performing arts institutions throughout North America, Europe and Asia. A MacArthur Fellow, Sheng has created an oeuvre with a strong synthesis of Western musical tradition which makes his work distinctive and original. Sheng himself admits: ‘I consider myself both 100% American and 100% Asian.’

In September 2016, in a co-production with the Hong Kong Arts Festival, with sold-out runs at both cities, the San Francisco Opera premiered Sheng’s commissioned opera Dream of The Red Chamber featuring a libretto by David Henry Hwang and Sheng, based on a Chinese novel by the 18th-century writer Cao Xueqin. In September 2017 he conducted a tour of the production in China.

In addition to composing, Sheng enjoys an active career as a conductor and concert pianist, and frequently acts as music advisor and artistic director to orchestras and festivals. He is currently the Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan, and Sohmen Professor-at-Large at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where, in 2011, he founded The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong.

Sheng was born on 6 December 1955 in Shanghai, and moved to New York in l982 where he pursued his graduate works and studied composition and conducting privately with his mentor Leonard Bernstein. Bright Sheng’s music is exclusively published by G. Schirmer, Inc., and his discography spans numerous albums.