Composer:   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. Other commissions and performances come from the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, the Heidelberger Philharmonisches Orchester, pipa virtuoso Wu Man, the Fromm Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Manhattan Sinfonietta, the 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 select music is published by Schott Music Corporation, and recorded on Telarc, Mode, New World, Innova, GM, Einstein 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. He 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.