Chen Yao (b.1976)

Yao Chen’s music, always ritual in nature, eschews contemporary vogues and instead aims at a timelessness and an otherness that exists beyond the standard categories – music for the moment, but also music for then and music for what lies ahead. Whether his work is brittle or forceful, or often both in coexistence, melancholy and a sense of wonder are recurring characteristics, as is an internationalist orientation grounded in a quest for maximal musical meaning. His perceptions on musical time, timbre, intonation, pulsation, and expression are always at frontiers: between the old and the new, between the East and the West, between irrational mysticism and rational logic. These perceptions have imbued in his many works such as From the Vessel of Ancient Souls, Garden: Unearthing the Way Home, Sentiments: Autumn, Pipa Plays Opera, The Supplicant, Emanations of Tara, Yearning, and so forth.

In recent years, his music has received a significant amount of recognition from many leading musicians and in many distinguished international arenas. His music has been presented by many renowned music festivals throughout the world including the Radio France (Festival Présences, Alla Breve), Tanglewood Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, ISCM’s World Music Days (Slovenia), Centre Acanthes Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Series, Focus Festival at Juilliard School, Pacific Music Festival in Japan and Hong Kong Arts Festival.

His music has been performed by distinguished ensembles such as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lorraine in France, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, China NCPA Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Pacifica String Quartet (Grammy Winner), Quatuor Diotima, Eighth Blackbird Sextet ,Tang Quartet, Civitas Ensemble among many others.

He has received commissions and awards from many international organizations including Radio France, Harvard University Fromm Foundation, Leonard Bernstein Foundation, Mellon Foundation, China NCPA Orchestra, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.

Yao graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music with Bachelor degree in composition, and received his Ph.D in Composition from the University of Chicago. He has taught at quite a few music schools in both the USA and China, and currently is professor of composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

www.yaochenmusic.com