Shining a Light

Augusta Read Thomas

George Walker

Zhu Jie

Zhu Jie, composer and conductress of Guangdong Song and Dance Theater; Member of International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM); Council Member of Chinese Woman Composers' Association; Studied composition and conducting at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China, and was a student of Huang Xiaotong. In 1998, attended Vienna Conservatory of Music for advanced studies in conducting, and awarded a diploma. Composer for many grand ceremonies in Guangdong as well as being awarded prizes. Conducted many grand ceremonies. Many of her works were awarded prizes in international contests, and her works have been performed by orchestras in China and overseas. In 1995, "Zhu Jie's Composition Concert" was sponsored by Guangdong Musicians Association, Music Channel of Radio Guangdong, and Guangdong Song and Dance Theater. In 1995, Guangdong TB televised Zhu Jie's compositions on the channel "Ether of Arts." The "2008 Beijing International Conference on Female Musicians Programme" refers Zhu Jie as a female composer in the late 20th century with achievements and contributions. Other Achievements: Received award from Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture. Being honoured as "Guangdong Province's Excellent Musician" for ten consecutive years. Ten of Zhu Jie's works were collected in Zhu Jie Vocal and Symphony Album—Series of the Best Works of Guangdong Musicians. Zhu Jie's original composition—Three Orchestral Pieces was published by Shanghai Conservatory Publishing House.

Zhang Ning

Zhang Ning graduated from the Composition Department of Wuhan Conservatory of Music in 2003 and got the Master Degree from the Composition Department of Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 2007.Her some works were published or subsumed for the teaching materials, played in CCTV-3.Some works won the prizes in China. She teached the Music Analysis in Beijing Normal University and Piano, the History of Western Music in other universities. Now she is an Executive Director of Chinese Women Composers’ Association and member of International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM).

Wang Qiang

Wang Qiang began her study of composition at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1955. As a third-year student she won first prize in the 1959 World Youth Music Composition Competition with the choral piece River of Fortune. After graduating in 1960, she took a position teaching composition at the same school. She continued to work at the Conservatory until 1991, when she moved to live and work in Hong Kong.

Associate Professor of the National Hsin-Chu University of Education, National Taiwan Arts University and Fu-Jen University. Professor Su acts as Vice President of Chinese Woman Composers’ Association now. Doctor of Musical Arts (composition) of Taipei National University of the Arts, study with Professor Hwang-Long Pan; MA (in music composition) of National Taiwan Normal University; graduated with an excellent degree in musical theory composition from the Konservatorium der Stadt Wien; also graduated from the Hochschule fuer Musik und darstellende Kunst in Wien for Electro-acoustic Music. Many works have been honored and performed in several countries. Among them “Himmel-Erde-Mensch” gained an honorary diploma at the “9th International Competition for Female Composers” in Mannheim, Germany in 1989 and “Ba-Gua” won first prize in a composition competition held by Komponisten Bund Austria & the Konservatorim der Stadt Wien in 1992.

Shi Fuhong

A native of Shenyang, China, Fuhong has been appointed to the faculty of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing right after she received the Doctoral degree in composition at the University of Toronto since fall 2009. She received a Bachelor’s degree in composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 2000 and earned a Master’s degree in composition at the University of Victoria in 2005. She has studied with a number of world renowned composers and composition professors, such as Gary Kulesha, Chen Yi, Guo Wenjing, Su Xia, Chou Wen-Chung, Chen Qigang, James MacMillan, Salvatore Sciarrino, Michel Gonneville, Steve Reich, Murray Schafer, Gilles Tremblay, Roger Reynold, Brian Cherney and so on. She was the recipient of a number of awards in China from 1997 to 2002 and was awarded Women Composers Scholarship by the International Composition Workshop of the Canadian National Arts Centre. She was a finalist in 2006 Tsang-Houei HSU International Music Composition Award, the winner of 2007 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music, and the Generation 2008 Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal+ Composer’s Competition. She was also awarded the scholarship from Acanthes International Composition Workshop in France in 2008. Fuhong has collaborated with numerous prominent orchestras and ensembles, and her compositions have been performed and broadcasted all over the world.

Wen Tze Grace Lu

Wen Tze Grace Lu, born in Taipei in 1962, Lu Wen Tze graduated from Soochaw University with a B.A. in Music in 1985. Lu was the winner of 1989 Alec Templeton Award and she gained a scholarship at Yale University, where she received an M.A. with distinction in 1991. Her works are frequently performed in China and, from time to time in countries such as the United States, Japan, Sweden, Korea, Poland, Thailand, France and Italy. She is currently Professor and Chairman of Music Department of Chinese Culture University in Taiwan; she is also Chairman of Asian Composers' League-Taiwan National Committee and Chairman of Taiwan Composers' Association.

Liu Qing

Liu Qing, Composer, Associate Professor of composition department of China Conservatory of Music, Committee Member of Chinese Woman Composers’ Association. She studied with professor Wang Ning, Zhang Yun-xuan, Jin Xiang and Yu Su-xian, received her Ph.D from China Central Conservatory of Music in 2009. Dr. Liu Qing’s music pursues exquisite style, distinguished by a profound traditional Chinese music background and modern compositional theory and technique of Western music. Her works are strikingly innovative, yet moving and emotional. Her major works include: Cocoon, music for violoncello and piano, published by People’s Music Publishing House ; Sequence, music for woodwind quintet; Prelude and Fugue, music made for seven Chinese and Western instruments; Story, orchestral music; Sha Wei, for Chinese Chamber; The Song of Happy Moon>, for Chinese traditional instruments; The Song of Grasslands, for Matouqin and Chinese traditional strings, commissioned by 10th anniversary concert of Chinese Youth National Orchestra; Ru Man, for Gu Zheng and Orchestra, commissioned by 2008 ICWM; Fantasia of Chinese Ancient Dance , for two pianos, commissioned by “Yu two pianos”. Her works were premiered in U.S.A, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia. In 2012, her work Feng· Huang premiered in Lincoln Center, and earned the first place in 2012 Princeton International Composition Prizes.

Lam Shun

Vice-President of the Chinese Woman Composers' Association , a member of Hong Kong Composers' Guild and is a member of the International Alliance for Women in Music , graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She studied composition, western orchestration and piano with Mr. Law Wing-fai, Dr. Chan Wing-wah and Miss Eleanor Wong respectively. She won the Exxon scholarship and the Ben van Zuiden Music Fund. Her works including both Chinese and western Chamber instrumentations' work, Orchestral, dance music, Opera, hymns, songs and musical for children, solo and duo piano works etc. Her compositions had been performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Japan's Ensemble Kochi, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Chinese Virtuosi(HK), Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Guangdong National Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Dun Huang Chinese Ensemble(Shanghai) and Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra . Her compositions had been presented in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, Italy and Paris respectively. LAM is now working as a composer, piano teacher and accompanist respectively.

Li Yiding

Li Yiding has worked as the senior composer in China Central Television (CCTV). Shi is the IAWM Advisor and the CWCA Vice President. She is an excellent composer for both the serious concert music and the film – teleplay music. Her works include the symphonic poems Angels in Hoh-Xil and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Orchestral Music Olunchun in Xiaoxing’anling Mountain, Chinese Orchestral Music Blue Mask Drama, chamber music and piano works Zhaxi Island Rhapsody, Gu’erlu Singing and Talking, Cliff Paintings in the Baicha River Valley, Pakistan Sketch and Tibet Scene, etc. Her music has been performed in London, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Brussels, Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing and Malaysia, Indonesia, Pennsylvania, etc. Her chamber music Burned Eden has been selected by the 23rd Search for New Music of IAWM in 2004. She was awarded by Civitella Ranieri Foundation. She was permitted to take part in the period of June 2009 and composed in the 15 century’s Civitella Ranieri Castle in Italy. Her chamber music Guge Kingdom Ruins was awarded the “Festival Score Winner” by the Ninth International Festival of Women Composers on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in March, 2010. She has already composed for 14 films and more than 80 Teleplays. She was awarded various kinds of prizes for 17 films or Teleplays. The main compositions are: the 84-part serial teleplay The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (cooperated with others. Flying in the Sky, Golden Eagle and Golden Dragon Prizes were won for it), the 20-part serial teleplay Heavy Snow Has Disappeared without Any Trace (The 19th China Golden Eagle Prize for the Favorite Song of TV Play), the 20-part serial teleplay Wen Cheng Princess, the teleplay Wen Yiduo; the film A Beijing Little Girl; the film Singing Deer in Golden Autumn (The Prize of the Third Suss International Teenage Film Festival, the Golden Prize of the Long Feature film, and the Prize of Child Adjudicator in the 7th Cairo International Film Festival) and the teleplay Macao Anecdotes.

Alice Ping Yee Ho

One of the most acclaimed composers writing in Canada today, Hong Kong-born Alice Ping Yee Ho has written in many musical genres and received numerous national and international awards, including the 2022 Nova Scotia Symphony’s Maria Anna Mozart Award, 2019 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, 2016 Louis Applebaum Composers Award, 2014 Prince Edward Island Symphony Composers Competition, 2014 Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Friendship Orchestral Composition Competition, 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Award “Outstanding Original Opera” for her opera The Lesson of Da Ji, 2013 Boston Metro Opera International Composition Competition, K.M. Hunter Artist Award, du Maurier Arts Ltd. Canadian Composers Competition, MACRO International Composition Competition, Luxembourg Sinfonietta International Composition Prize, and International League of Women Composers Competition. Critics have called her music dramatic and graceful, while praising its “organic flow of imagination,” “distinctly individual” style", "colourful orchestration", and "emotive qualities". Influences evident in her proudly eclectic approach include Chinese folk and operatic idioms, Japanese Taiko , jazz, pop culture, and other contemporary art forms. Her ongoing goal is to explore new musical styles that are provocative to the ears. “Colors and tonality are two attractive resources to me: they form certain mental images that connect to audiences in a very basic way.” [AH] Often featured at national and international new music festivals such as ISCM World Music Days, Ottawa Chamberfest, Denmark’s CRUSH New Music Festival, and Asian Music Week in Japan, etc. Her works have also been performed by major ensembles and soloists including Finnish Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra, China National Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish Radio Choir, Estonia's Ellerhein Girls' Choir, the Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Victoria, Nova Scotia, Hamilton, Kitchener Waterloo, and Windsor Symphonies, the Luxembourg Sinfonietta, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, New Music Concerts, Penderecki String Quartet, TorQ percussion quartet, Duo Concertante, violist Rivka Golani, pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico, percussionists Sumire Yoshihara, Evelyn Glennie, and Beverley Johnston, flutist Robert Aitken, Patrick Gallois, and Susan Hoeppner. A twice JUNO Award Nominee (2015 and 2018), she has an impressive discography released on the Centrediscs, Naxos, Marquis Classics, Blue Griffin, Electra, Leaf Music, and Phoenix labels. She has six solo discs and two new recordings devoted to music written for different genres: " Ming " for percussion, "Glistening Pianos" for two pianos, "The Lesson of Da Di" features her Dora award winning opera The Lesson of Da Ji, "Mysterious Boot" for flute, cello, and piano, "The Monkiest King" features her children's opera with the Canadian Children's Opera Company, and "Venom of Love" presents a full length recording of her electronic ballet music. She is currently working on two new solo albums "A Woman's Voice" for female voices and piano on Leaf Music label, and a full length recording of her solo piano music featuring acclaimed Canadian pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico on Centrediscs label. Her upcoming projects includes a new opera CHINATOWN commissioned by City Opera Vancouver, with renowned Canadian writer/librettist Madeleine Thien and Hoisanese co-writer Paul Yee, opening September 13-17 of 2022 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Ms. Ho holds a Bachelor of Music degree in composition with high distinction from Indiana University and a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Toronto. Her teachers have included John Eaton (USA), Brian Ferneyhough(Germany), and John Beckwith (Canada). ​She is a noted classical pianist and an active advocate of contemporary music. She had performed in many new music festivals, including a solo piano recital recorded by CBC Radio 2 in which she premiered Tan Dun’s solo piano work “Traces II”. She now makes her home in Toronto.

Gao Yuan

Gao Yuan, the composer Gao Yuan is a winner of Xinyi Young Composers Award and Composition Competitions Award of the Ministry of Culture. Gao was admitted to the Music High School of China Conservatory in Beijing when she was fifteen. She later studied at China Conservatory of Music and Central Conservatory of Music, majoring in composition. Her main works include Fei Tian (Flying in Sky) for septet, Like Dreaming for Chinese ensemble, Lightning for string quartet, Meditating in Autumn, Capriccio for Youths, Emotional Telling in Kroraina for orchestra, Piano Concerto Homesick, children choral works That Day, Song of Horse Herding, as well as Free Returning, Free Departure and Free Flying II for music media. She was sponsored by the special fund of Beijing Government for Talented Young Persons in 2011. Gao is frequently invited to participate in international cultural exchange activities throughout Europe. Many of her works are published by national publishing companies. Her collection Children's Ballet Piano Pieces was published in January 2011.