First Prize winner of the 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 ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, rock, and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls “dimensionalism.” 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. His music has been premiered and performed by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, National Polish Radio Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera. New York City Opera, Opera Hong Kong, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Ethel Quartet, among many others.
Huang Ruo’s opera, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, received its American premiere by the Santa Fe Opera in 2014, and will be given its Canadian premiere by the Vancouver Opera in 2018. His next opera, Paradise Interrupted, receives its world premiere at the Spoleto Festival USA in May 2015 and the Lincoln Center Festival in 2016, before going on tour to Asia and Europe. He recently has also been named composer in residence for the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, China, in 1976, the year the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended; and his father, a composer, began teaching him composition and piano when he was six years old. Huang Ruo received both traditional and Western education at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and, after winning the Henry Mancini Award at the 1995 International Film and Music Festival in Switzerland, he moved to the United States to further his education. Since then, he has earned a Baccalaureate degree from the Oberlin Conservatory, and Master and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in composition from the Juilliard School. He is a composition faculty member at the Mannes College of Music at the New School, and artistic director and conductor of Ensemble FIRE (Future In REverse).
Huang Ruo returns to the Cabrillo Festival for the West Coast Premiere of his Concerto for Sheng, Yellow Earth, on Saturday, August 8th.
