Zinc

Yao Chen is a composer and a Professor of Composition at Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He received training in composition at Xinghai Conservatory of Music and Central Conservatory of Music, and obtained his PhD in Composition from the University of Chicago. Chen has received commissions and awards from many international organizations, including Radio France, Harvard University’s Fromm Foundation, the Leonard Bernstein Foundation, the Mellon Foundation and the China National Center for the Performing Arts. His music has been performed by many internationally-acclaimed musicians and ensembles, and he has won awards at renowned music festivals such as ISCM World Music Days, Centre Acanthes, Festival Présences, Tanglewood Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival among many others. His music eschews contemporary vogues, aiming for a timelessness and an otherness that exists beyond the standard categories – music for the moment, but also music for then and music for what lies ahead.