Huang Ruo
Awarded First Prize by the prestigious Luxembourg International Composition Prize, Huang Ruo has been cited by The New Yorker as "one of the most intriguing of the new crop of Asian-American composers". His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese folk, Western avant-garde, rock, and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls "dimensionalism". As a member of the new generation of Chinese composers, he clearly knows that his goal and task is not just to mix both Western and Eastern elements, but to go beyond that to create a seamless integration and a convincing organic unity, drawing influences from various genres and cultures.
Huang Ruo’s writing spans from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater, and modern dance to sound installation, multi-media, experimental improvisation, folk rock, and film. Ensembles who have premiered and performed his music include the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Asko Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Intégrales, Dutch Vocal Laboratory, and the Tang Quartet, and under conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies, Ed Spanjaard, Xian Zhang, and Ilan Volkov. Huang Ruo has received awards and grants from the ASCAP Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Music Center and Aaron Copland Award.
Huang Ruo has collaborated with New York City Ballet’s principal dancer Damian Woetzel and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, in addition to Sheng virtuoso Wu Wei and kinetic painter Norman Perryman. His Chamber Concerto Cycle was released on Naxos in February 2007; Leaving Sao, a work for orchestra and Chinese Folk Voice, was released on Albany Records with his own singing in 2008; and Divergence came out on Koch International in 2009. His latest CD, To The Four Corners, performed by Future In REverse (FIRE), was recently released on Naxos Records. Huang Ruo’s most recent work is his new opera Sun Yat-sen, which is commissioned by Opera Hong Kong and will receive its world premiere at the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts in 2011.
Huang Ruo’s film credits include soundtracks for I.M. Pei - Building China Modern, Jian-Fu Garden and Stand Up. Aside from being an avant-garde composer and author, he is also a conductor and Chinese folk-rock singer.
Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, China, in 1976, the year the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, when China was steadily opening its gates to the Western world, he received both traditional and Western education at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. As a result of the dramatic cultural and economic changes in China following the Cultural Revolution, his education expanded from Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, and Lutoslawski, to include the Beatles, rock'n'roll, heavy metal, and jazz. In 1995 he moved to the United States to further his education. His composition teachers have included Randolph Coleman and Samuel Adler. Huang Ruo is currently a member of the composition faculty at SUNY Purchase as well as a guest professor in composition at the Guangzhou Xing-Hai Conservatory of Music and artistic director and conductor of Future In REverse.
Huang Ruo’s writing spans from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater, and modern dance to sound installation, multi-media, experimental improvisation, folk rock, and film. Ensembles who have premiered and performed his music include the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Asko Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Intégrales, Dutch Vocal Laboratory, and the Tang Quartet, and under conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies, Ed Spanjaard, Xian Zhang, and Ilan Volkov. Huang Ruo has received awards and grants from the ASCAP Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, Chamber Music America, American Music Center and Aaron Copland Award.
Huang Ruo has collaborated with New York City Ballet’s principal dancer Damian Woetzel and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, in addition to Sheng virtuoso Wu Wei and kinetic painter Norman Perryman. His Chamber Concerto Cycle was released on Naxos in February 2007; Leaving Sao, a work for orchestra and Chinese Folk Voice, was released on Albany Records with his own singing in 2008; and Divergence came out on Koch International in 2009. His latest CD, To The Four Corners, performed by Future In REverse (FIRE), was recently released on Naxos Records. Huang Ruo’s most recent work is his new opera Sun Yat-sen, which is commissioned by Opera Hong Kong and will receive its world premiere at the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts in 2011.
Huang Ruo’s film credits include soundtracks for I.M. Pei - Building China Modern, Jian-Fu Garden and Stand Up. Aside from being an avant-garde composer and author, he is also a conductor and Chinese folk-rock singer.
Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, China, in 1976, the year the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, when China was steadily opening its gates to the Western world, he received both traditional and Western education at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. As a result of the dramatic cultural and economic changes in China following the Cultural Revolution, his education expanded from Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, and Lutoslawski, to include the Beatles, rock'n'roll, heavy metal, and jazz. In 1995 he moved to the United States to further his education. His composition teachers have included Randolph Coleman and Samuel Adler. Huang Ruo is currently a member of the composition faculty at SUNY Purchase as well as a guest professor in composition at the Guangzhou Xing-Hai Conservatory of Music and artistic director and conductor of Future In REverse.
