Seattle Symphony Released Bright Sheng's CD

Bright Sheng is well known for brilliantly connecting the culture of his Chinese heritage with his American training. Red Silk Dance, written for solo piano and orchestra, features the composer as soloist. This work expresses the journey and cultural exchange experienced by traders along the web of routes between “East” and West” called the Silk Road. Tibetan Swing showcases the unique rhythms of traditional Tibetan dance, with “swing” referring to the motion of the elaborate long sleeves of the Tibetan women’s dance costumes.

The Phoenix, co-commissioned by Seattle Symphony and Danish National Symphony Orchestra, was inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen tale, the mythical bird symbolizing for Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng “the muse of all peoples.” Written for soprano and orchestra, The Phoenix is a work of celebration, marking Seattle Symphony’s Centennial Season as well as the 200 birthday of the Danish fairy tale writer, Hans Christian Andersen. Gerard Schwarz conducted the premiere at Benaroya Hall before taking it on Seattle Symphony’s Centennial Tour where it was performed at Carnegie Hall.

Aggressive fervour seeks meditative peace in H’un (Lacerations): In Memoriam 1966-1976, hailed by The New York Times as “a searing portrait of the Cultural Revolution in China…deeply affecting.” The work was composed in 1988, just after Sheng became an American citizen, and was taken on tour by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic in 1993, launching Sheng’s international career. H’un is dedicated to Gerard Schwarz, who conducted the premiere with the New York Chamber Symphony.

Sheng served as Seattle Symphony’s Composer in Residence from 1992–1995. Along with Schwarz, Sheng was Co-Artistic Director of Seattle Symphony’s 2001 festival Fusion: West to East—East to West.

Under Music Director Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony enjoys international distinction for its performances and recordings of major works by American composers, creating a rich discography of historic American works. Schwarz was recognized in 2002 by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for his championship of American music and the music of our time. Among several other recording projects currently underway, the Orchestra is recording the symphonies of American composer William Schuman for Naxos.

About Bright Sheng:

Bright Sheng is respected as one of the foremost composers of our time, whose stage, orchestral, chamber and vocal works are performed regularly throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He was proclaimed by the MacArthur Foundation in 2001 as “an innovative composer who merges diverse musical customs in works that transcend conventional aesthetic boundaries.”

Born in Shanghai in 1955, Sheng began studying the piano with his mother at age 4. At 15, during China’s infamous Cultural Revolution, he was sent to the remote province of Qinghai—a bordering state of China and Tibet—where for seven years he performed in the provincial folk music and dance theater and studied folk music of the region. When China’s universities reopened in 1978, he was among the first students admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music where, from 1978–82, he studied composition with Wang Jianzhong before earning his Bachelor of Music degree. He moved to New York in 1982 and, at Queens College, CUNY, earned his M.A. degree in 1984. Sheng earned his D.M.A. in 1993 from Columbia University. In 1985 while a student fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, Sheng met Leonard Bernstein who later became Sheng’s mentor, teaching him privately until Bernstein’s passing in 1990.

Among many other awards, Sheng received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2001. He also received the American Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters that same year, and received an ASCAP Achievement Award in 2002. Sheng has taught composition at the University of Michigan since 1995, where he was Professor of Music from 1997–2003 and has been the Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Music since 2003. -- www.seattlesymphony.org