Huang Ruo
(born 1976, Hainan Island, China)
Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “strikingly assured,” Huang’s music has been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch, the Juilliard Symphony under James Conlon, the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies, the ASKO Ensemble under Ilan Volkov, the Nieuw Ensemble under Ed Spanjaard, Dutch Vocal Laboratory, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Capo Chamber Players, the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller, the IRIS Chamber Orchestra under Michael Stern, the Sioux City Symphony under Xian Zhang, and Cho-Liang Lin with the Queens Symphony Orchestra that commissioned and premiered his violin concerto, just to name a few. His music has been played in the Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall, the Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center), the Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center), the Miller Theatre, the Symphony Space, the Academy of Music (Philadelphia), the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Harris Concerto Hall (Aspen), the MUZIEKGEBOUW AAN ‘T IJ (Amsterdam), the Paradiso Hall (Amsterdam), and the City Hall (Hong Kong). In 2003, he was featured on the composer’s portrait concert in the Miller Theater, where all his four chamber concertos were premiered as a cycle by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). This concert was hailed by The New York Times critic Allan Kozinn as number two of the Top Ten Classical Moments of 2003. In February 2007, the NAXOS Record released his Chamber Concerto Cycle on its acclaimed American Classics Series, and the Albany Record will release his orchestral lyric Leaving Sao in the near future. His recent activity including a collaboration with the New York City Ballet principal dancer and choreographer Damian Woetzel and Christopher Wheeldon, setting his concerto No.3 Divergence for a gala event hosted by the Sothebys. Recently, the ASKO Ensemble and Dutch kinetic artist Norman Perryman gave the European premiere of his Confluences: Concerto for Paint Brush and Chamber Orchestra in the MUZIEKGEBOUW AAN ‘T IJ, Holland, and the Nieuw Ensemble premiered his new commissioned work Curve of the Shadow also at the MUZIEKGEBOUW AAN ‘T IJ. Huang’s future commissions include a cello concerto for Jian Wang, co-commissioned by the ASCAP Foundation, as part of the Miller Theatre’s pocket concerto series, a symphony for the Bavarian Radio Orchestra for the Musica Viva Festival in Germany, a chamber work co-commissioned by the La Jolla Music Festival and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, music for string orchestra for the Sejong International Soloists, a chamber work commissioned by the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, a chamber work for the Continuum Ensemble, and a Sheng concerto for the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller. Upcoming performances include the New York premiere of Announcement, with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall (NY), the world premiere of People Mountain People Sea with cellist Jian Wang and Perspective Ensemble at Miller Theatre (NY), a portrait concert with Future In REverse at the Greenwich Music Festival (CT), European premiere of Without Words with the Dutch Vocal Laboratory in the MUZIEKGEBOUW AAN ‘T IJ (Amsterdam), Two Pieces for Piano with pianist Chu-Fang Huang at Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater (DC), two performances of visual music Confluences with the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra (CA).
A frequent winner of the ASCAP Concert Music Award, Huang’s work has been spotlighted on National Public Radio (NPR), Radio-Finland, Radio-Sweden, Radio-Amsterdam, Radio-Canada and Radio-China. His works are published by the Huang Ruo Publishing and Recording Company which he founded in 2000. Also noted as an author, Huang’s book, “Selection of Classic Chinese Folk Songs,” was published by the Zhong Shan University Press. For the past few years, he was invited to give lectures and forums at the New York University, Columbia University, the Aspen Composers’ Forum, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Shanghai conservatory of Music, the Guangzhou Conservatory of Music, and was a visiting composer at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Georgia. In 2006, he has been selected as a Young Leader Fellow from the U.S. – China National Relationship Committee.
Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, 1976, the year the Chinese culture revolution ended. His father, who is a well-known composer in China, started teaching him composition and piano since he was six years old. Growing up in the 80’s and the 90’s, when China was steadily opening up its gate to the Western world, he received both traditional and western education in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he was admitted into the composition program studying with Deng Erbo when he turned 12. Witnessing the dramatic cultural and economic changes in China, his education expending from Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, to Beatles, rock n’ roll, heavy metal, and jazz, all of which were allowed to enter the cultural life in China approximately the same time after the culture revolution. All these ‘new’ western influences enable him to absorb them without any hierarchy and limitation of styles. Being part of the new generation Chinese composers, he knew clearly that his goal and task is not just to simply mix both Western and Eastern elements, but to go beyond that to create a seamless syntheses and a convincing organic unity, drawing influences from various genres and cultures. After winning the Henry Mancini Award at the 1995 International Film and Music Festival in Switzerland, he moved to the United States for further education. Since then, he has gotten a BM degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a MM degree from the Juilliard School, and is working with Samuel Adler at the Juilliard School approaching a Doctor of Musical Art degree in Composition program. Huang is currently a composition faculty member of the SUNY Purchase. Huang is a permanent resident of the United States, and a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). For more information about Huang Ruo, please visit his website
www.huangruo.com
Anthony Coleman is a composer-keyboardist who has performed and recorded throughout the world. His projects include the piano trio Sephardic Tinge, which has released three discs: Sephardic Tinge, Morenica, and Our Beautiful Garden Is Open (all Tzadik) and has performed at the Sarajevo Jazz Festival (with support from Arts International), North Sea Jazz Festival, Saalfelden Festival, and the Krakow and Vienna Jewish Culture Festivals. His Selfhaters Orchestra has issued two CDs: Selfhaters and The Abysmal Richness of the Infinite Proximity of the Same (both Tzadik).
His compositions for other ensembles include Latvian Counter-Gambit for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Crosstown Ensemble, Mise en Abime, commissioned by the Bang On A Can All-Stars/Jerome Foundation, Goodbye and Good Luck, commissioned by Neta Pulvermacher and Dancers/Meet The Composer, as well as commissions from Relche, Aspen Woodwind Quintet, and David Krakauer/Concert Artists Guild. Coleman’s compositions can also be heard on the following CDs: Carol Emanuel’s Tops of Trees (Koch); Guy Klucevsek’s Manhattan Cascade (CRI); A Guide For The Perplexed (Knitting Factory Works); A Conspiracy of Dances (Einstein); and Polka From the Fringe (Wave/Eva). Coleman’s other major projects have included by Night, a series of pieces based on experiences in the ex-Yugoslavia (Disco by Night [Avant]) and the duo Lobster and Friend, with saxophonist Roy Nathanson (The Coming Great Millennium, Lobster and Friend [both Knitting Factory Works] and I Could’ve Been A Drum [Tzadik]). He has also produced several recordings for other artists, including Marc Ribot, Basya Schecter and Pharoah’s Daughter, Romanian singer Sanda, as well as the acclaimed With Every Breath - the Music of Shabbat at BJ [Knitting Factory Works]. Anthony Coleman has received grants and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Djerassi Colony, the Civitella Ranieri Center, the Frei und Hansestadt Hamburg Kulturbehrde and the Yellow Springs Arts Center.
In the last year, Coleman has been the subject of a three-day festival, Abstract Adventures, in Brussels, Belgium. He presented a concert of his music as part of the Interpretations series at Merkin Concert Hall, NYC. He spent the spring semester of 2003 teaching theory and composition at Bennington College in Vermont and toured Europe with his new trio, Professionals, featuring Brad Jones and Roberto Rodriguez. He has degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Yale School of Music and attended Mauricio Kagel’s seminar at Centre Acanthes in Aix-en-Provence, France.