Du Yun, composer
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Art of the States
Described as “electrifying… an attractive score … “ “cutting-edge…to whom the term ‘young composer’ and ‘the pianist’ can hardly do justice ” (by New York Times), “ineffably quaking… stirs a scene” (by La Presse, Montréal); “…a work loaded with subtle lament, spanning from chaotic sonorous atmosphere to structured improvisation…” (by Cervantino, Mexico), “...reconciles savageness and quietness ..." (by Volkeskrant, Amsterdam), "...the strongest impression made yet, a political statement against oppression and violence" (by De Rode Leeuw, Amsterdam), and “…one senses the exceptional ear, exploration and the results are impeccably powerful” (by Le Devoir, Montréal), DU Yun’s written compositions have been spotlighted on China’s National Radio Station, Radio-Shanghai, Radio-Canada, Radio Canada Internationale (RCI), Espace Musique 100.7 FM, FBi 94.5 (Australia), Canal 22 (Mexico), Art of the States (www.artofthestates.org), SinoVision (US), WFMT, WCKR and l’Union Européene de Radio-Télévision.
Recent recipient of the 2007 Fromm Foundation, in the recent years Du Yun has been granted of awards, fellowships, and commissions including from the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, American Music Center, Greenwall Foundation, Lower Manhattan Council, the First Place of China National Young Composer Competition, Harvard Dissertation Completion Award, winner of the 3rd British and International Bass Forum Composition Competition (solo section), Adelbert W. Sprague Prize, the audience award of the 2004 International Composer Forum in Montréal, Canada, New Trumpet Festival of New York, and the Shanghai New Music Foundation.
Her concert music has been premiered by the Radio Kamer Filharmonie of The Netherlands, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne of Canada, le Decadanse of France, Nueva Musíca Duo of Mexico, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai New Music Ensemble the Bang On a Can All-Stars, the Oberlin Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the North/South Consonance Chamber Orchestra, the New York Miniature Ensemble, cellists Frances-Marie Uitti, Joakim Munkner, and among others. And most importantly, she is blessed to continue to compose for the International Contemporary Ensemble (the group with whom she is the founding composer and has had the working relationship since its inception).
Aside from composing notated music for concert halls, Du Yun’s music also spans from writing for art shows, experimental theatres to improvising/performing actively at avant-garde venues on the amplified/processed Chinese zither (the 21-string zheng), piano, laptop, and with her own voice. Propelled by the kernel of genere-defying, her approach to music, regardless its formation, has always aimed to be ultimately visceral; to evoke a sense of corporeality stripped-down from spirituality. Cast as the leading role of her own hour-long music-theatre, Zolle, she was seen on stage at the Performance Space 122 for a week-run in October 2005, with ICE and director Lydia Steir. Recently signed with Tag Team Records as a songwriter and singer, her first LP in the genre of alternative/experimental electronica is scheduled to release in US and China in 2009.
Du Yun’s classical compositions can be heard on labels such as Wugui (Beijing), Shanghai Classical Music, ATMA Classique, and Focus (upcoming). She is a member of ASCAP.
This current season her concert music has been featured at the festivals that include Ultima Contemporary Music Festival in Oslo, Norway; the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico and the Shanghai New Music Festival; at a torn-down theatre space in Cartagena, Columbia; world premiere of her most recent orchestra piece by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at the Shanghai Symphony Hall. Her current composing engagements include a work (Cockroach’s Tarentella) for string quartet, a narrator, and electronics for iO quartet; a commission from the Vision & Voice Theater to work on a play, I have been to Hiroshima Mon Amour, with playwright Chiori Miyagawa and director Jean Wagner, which will be on preview at the Culture Project in April 2008; a dance/multimedia project, Karaoke Superstar, with the Moving Theater for featuring at the Whitney Museum Live in November 2008.
Born and raised in Shanghai, China, Du Yun currently resides in New York City. She is an alumna of Shanghai Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.) and Harvard University (M.A., Ph.D). Her principal compositional teachers include DENG Erbo, Randolph Coleman, Bernard Rands, Joshua Fineberg, and Mario Davidovsky. She currently serves on the composition faculty at the State University of New York-Purchase.
