Lei Liang (Chinese: 梁雷; pinyin: Liáng Léi; born November 28, 1972, in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

, China) is a Chinese-born American composer who was a winner of the

Grawemeyer Award The Grawemeyer Awards () are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology. The religion awa ...

and a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music. He is Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Music at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

Early life and education

Liang is the son of musicologists Liang Mao-chun (b. 1940) and Cai Liang-yu (b. 1940) and studied piano as a child."Bio: Lei Liang"
''The Living Composers Project'' website He started composing at age six. His works written before he was thirteen are widely used for piano pedagogy and included among the required repertoire for national piano competitions in China. Liang came to the United States in 1990 for further studies, receiving BM and MM degrees from the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

, both with academic honors and distinction in performance, and a Junior Fellowship and Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Career

Liang was the winner of the 2011

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Recipients must be American citizens. Prizes have been aw ...

and the recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

, an Aaron Copland Award, a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission, a

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has co ...

Award, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

. His concerto ''Xiaoxiang'' (for alto saxophone and orchestra) was named a finalist for the

2015 Pulitzer Prize The 2015 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board for work during the 2014 calendar year. Prize winners and nominated finalists were announced on April 20, 2015. Prizes Journalism Letters, Drama, and ...

for Music. His orchestral work, '' A Thousand Mountains, A Million Streams'', won the 2021

for Music Composition. Lei Liang was commissioned by the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

and its music director Alan Gilbert for the inaugural concert of the CONTACT! new music series. He studied composition at

, where he received both a BM and a MM and then took his PhD at

as a recipient of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. During this time, his teachers included a number of notable composers, including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Robert Cogan, Chaya Czernowin, and Mario Davidovsky. In interviews and his own writings, Lei Liang credits Harvard ethnomusicologist Rulan Chao Pian as his most important mentor and personal influence. Liang's fourteen portrait discs are recorded on

Naxos Records Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records, which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about ...

, Bridge Records, Mode Records, BMOP/sound, Albany Records and

New World Records New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.Innova,

Telarc Telarc International Corporation is an American audiophile independent record label founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the label has had a long assoc ...

and GM Records. As a scholar and conservationist of cultural traditions, he has edited and co-edited eight books and editions, and has published more than fifty articles. In 2020, Shanghai Conservatory of Music Press published a biography of Liang, with essays by composers, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, performers, music critics, literary scholars, poets, and scientists. The book was edited by Prof. Qin Luo of Shanghai Conservatory. From 2013 to 2016, Liang served as composer-in-residence at the

California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

where his multimedia works preserve and reimagine cultural heritage through combining scientific research and advanced technology. In 2018, Liang returned to the institute as its inaugural research artist-in-residence. In 2023, the Institute launched "Lei Lab" where he continues to collaborate with engineers, geologists, oceanographers and software developers, to explore what he calls "the unique potential for learning offered by creative listening." Lei Liang's recent works address issues of sex trafficking across the US-Mexican border (chamber opera "Cuatro Corridos"), America's complex relationship with gun and violence (chamber opera "Inheritance"), and environmental awareness through the sonificiation of coral reefs. Liang served as honorary professor of composition and sound design at Wuhan Conservatory of Music,Wuhan Conservatory of Music
– website as distinguished visiting professor at the Shaanxi Normal University College of Arts in

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

and Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and as visiting assistant professor of music at

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

. Since 2009, he has taught at the

where he served as chair of the composition area, acting chair of the music department, as well as the chair of the campus-wide committee on committees. Liang was appointed Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Music in 2020. In 2018, Lei Liang was appointed chair of the academic advisory board and artistic director of the Chou Wen-chung Music Research Center at the

Xinghai Conservatory of Music The Xinghai Conservatory of Music, also known as the Xinghai Conservatory, is a music conservatory in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China. It has two campuses: one in the Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center in Panyu District, another ...

in Guangzhou, China. The center was named after the influential Chinese-American composer

Chou Wen-chung Chou Wen-chung (; July 28, 1923 – October 25, 2019) was a Chinese American composer of contemporary classical music. He emigrated in 1946 to the United States and received his music training at the New England Conservatory and Columbia Univ ...

. Liang's catalogue of more than a hundred works is published by

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second-oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were foun ...

. He lives in San Diego with his son Albert.

References

External links

Faculty Profile, UCSD

Lei Liang website

Lei Liang from the Schott Music site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liang, Lei Chinese classical composers American classical musicians of Chinese descent Chinese male classical composers University of California, San Diego faculty 1972 births Living people 21st-century American classical composers Musicians from Tianjin Educators from Tianjin Harvard University alumni American male classical composers New England Conservatory alumni 21st-century American male musicians Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows