Chinese Studies program

Lei Liang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Harvard University

Department of Music
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive MC 0099
La Jolla, California, 92093-0099

email leliang@ucsd.edu
phone (858) 822-1434
office Conrad Prebys Music Center (CPMC) 350
website http://www.lei-liang.com

Liang

Curriculum Vitae

Lei Liang is a Chinese-born American composer of mostly stage and chamber works that have been performed throughout the world. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Aaron Copland Award, Lei Liang has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, the Heidelberger Philharmonisches Orchester, the Fromm Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Manhattan Sinfonietta, the Shanghai Quartet, Boston Musica Viva, pianist Stephen Drury and pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Lei Liang's music is recorded on Telarc International, Mode, GM, Encounter, Spektral and Opal Records. As a scholar, he is active in the research and preservation of traditional Asian music. Lei Liang studied composition with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Robert Cogan, Chaya Czernowin, and Mario Davidovsky, and received degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (BM and MM) and Harvard University (PhD). He joined the faculty at the University of California, San Diego in 2007.

Recordings
  • March Cathedral; Against Piano; Garden Eight; Garden Six; Dialectal Percussions; Feng; Extend; Garden Nine; Other Encounter. Bao Jian, guanzi; Lenny Bretton, Eric Hewitt, Conrad Kline, Shyen Lee, Chien-Kwan Lin, Samuel Lorber, Ken Radnovsky, Greg Ridlington, Oliver Schneller, saxophones; Van Weng, electric guitar; Feng Hew, cello; Lei Liang, piano, harpsichord; Jung Mi Lee, Jon Sakata, pianos; Christopher DeChiara, Jeremy Friedman, Phillip Kiamie, Matthew Masie, Eric Millstein, Mei Ying Ng, John Spirtas, Gary Wallen, percussion; Tamara Brooks/New England Conservatory Chamber Singers (Encounter Records, 2000)
  • Some Empty Thoughts of a Person from Edo (Opal Records, 2002)
  • Gobi Gloria, in Dim Sum, Ying Quartet, Telarc International (CD-80690, 2008)
  • Parts for a Floating Space (soprano saxophone +baritone saxophone and percussion), in “Heavy Up / Heavy Down”, Yesaroun’ Duo, GM Recordings (GM2077CD, 2009)
  • Memories of Xiaoxiang (alto saxophone and tape), in intersections, Eliot Gattegno, Spektral Records (SRL4-08039, 2009)
  • Serashi Fragments (string quartet), Some Empty Thoughts of a Person from Edo (harpsichord), Memories of Xiaoxiang (alto saxophone and tape), Trio (cello, piano and percussion), In Praise of Shadows (flute), My Windows (piano), Brush-Stroke (chamber orchestra), in Brush-Stroke, Arditti Quartet, Takae Ohnishi, Paula Robison, Chien-Kwan Lin, Stephen Drury, Aleck Karis, Callithumpian Consort. Liner Notes by Yayoi Uno Everett. Mode Records (MOD-CD-210, 2009)
  • Yuan (saxophone Quartet), in “Antiphony”, PRISM Quartet, Innova Records (767, 2010)
  • Motion Parallel (guanzi and sheng), in “Extension”, Bao Jian and Hu Jianbing (TT-Art, 2010)
  • Lake (flute duet), John Fonville and Kathleen Gallagher, Einstein Recordings (EIN 021, 2010)
  • Verge (string orchestra), New York Philharmonic, Magnus Lindberg, conductor, “On the Cutting Edge, New Music from CONTACT!, Alan Gilbert & New York Philharmonic: The Inaugural Season.” Released on September 7, 2010, on iTunes.
  • Milou (mixed ensemble), Ascension (brass quintet and percussion), A Journey into Desire (guitar solo), Lake (flute duet), Harp Concerto (harp and ensemble), Take Off (harpsichord and string trio), Yuan (saxophone quartet) in Milou, Manhattan Sinfonietta, June Han, Jeffrey Milarsky, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, the Radnofsky Quartet, John Fonville, Jane Rigler, Takae Ohnishi. Liner Notes by Yayoi Uno Everett. New World Records (80715, 2011)
  • Memories of Xiaoxiang (alto saxophone and tape), Shyen Lee, in “Saxowatdeekrap”, Shyen Music/Himalaya Music CDP-11001 (2011)
  • Verge (string orchestra), Aural Hypothesis (sextet), Five Seasons (pipa and string quartet), Tremors of a Memory Chord (piano and grand Chinese orchestra). Palimpsest Ensemble with Steven Schick (conductor), Wu Man (pipa) and the Shanghai Quartet, Callithumpian Consort with Stephen Drury (conductor), Pi-hsien Chen (piano solo) with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra and En Shao (conductor). Naxos (8.572839, 2012)
Publications

  • “About Being Chinese.” Sonus: A Journal of Investigations into Global Musical Possibilities, Cambridge: Vol. 17, no.1 (fall 1996): 3-5.
  • “Milou – shengyin de louge” [Milou – a Sonic Labyrinth] Huangzhong [Journal of Wuhan Conservatory of Music], vol.55 (2000, no.3): 16-21.
  • “Colliding Resonances: The Music of Xiaoyong Chen,” Contemporary Music Review, Vol. 26, nos. 5 & 6, 2007. Pp 529-545.
  • China and the West: the Birth of a New Music. Contemporary Music Review, Vol.26, nos. 5 & 6, 2007 (as co-issue editor, with Edward Green).
  • Liang, Lei with Pi-hsien Chen, En Shao and Wei-tsu Fan. “Jiyi de xiandong: tan gangqin yu minzu yuedui xiezouqu de chuangzuo yu quanshi” [Tremors of a Memory Chord: a discussion about the creation and interpretation of a concerto for piano and grand Chinese orchestra]. Co-edited by Yeung-Ping Chen and Lei Liang. Zhongyang Yinyue Xueyang Xuebao [Journal of the Central Conservatory of Music], Jan. 2012: 44-50, 103 
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