Some of the most astonishing and important music being composed today comes from a group of Chinese in their forties. These composers embody a critical moment for synthesising Western musical techniques and forms with Chinese folk materials. Compared to the orchestral and chamber music of this Chinese "Bartok" generation", most earlier Chinese concert music blending East an West seems superficial. On this CD, Cala presents Zhou Long, who's music assimilates folk sources while preserving their pungency and raw emotive power
Review:
Born in Bejing and currently residing in Brooklyn, Zhou Long (b.1953) has already won many musical plaudits for his highly imaginative music. Full of incident and ear-tickling textural variety, Long's 1994 sextet, The Ineffable, enshrines a fascinating and rewarding synthesis of Chinese and Western compositional and instrumental elements. Indeed, every piece here reveals a composer of refined sensibility and explanatory daring. Performances and sound throughout are beyond reproach. Gramophone
Biography: Zhou Long was born in 1953 in Beijing, China. As a youth, his earlier artistic influences came from his parents who painted and taught vocal music. Though he began piano lessons at a young age, he was unable to escape the fate of most of his generation in China whose education was halted during the Cultural Revolution. He was sent to a state farm in a remote area where the natural scene - roaring winds and fierce land fires - made a profound impression on him. It was music which helped him to survive this difficult life. In 1973, Zhou resumed his musical training, studying composition, music theory, and conducting as well as Chinese music with Luo Zhongrong, Li Yinghai, Fan Zuyin and Yan Liangkun. When the school system was reinstated in 1977, Zhou enrolled in the exclusive Central Conservatory in Beijing to study composition under Su Xia. After graduation in 1983, he was appointed the Composer-in-Residence with the Broadcasting Symphony of China. Zhou came to the United States in 1985 under a fellowship to attend Columbia University. There he studied composition with Chou Wen-Chung, Mario Davidovsky and George Edwards and received his doctorate in 1993. Zhou has served as the Music Director of Music From China, and is a former NEA Composer-in-Residence with New Music Consort in New York City. Zhou Long has received much recognition for his work including fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has received commissions and grants from the Koussevitzky and Fromm Foundations, the Aaron Copland Fund For Music, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the New York State Council on the Arts as well as Meet The Composer's Reader's Digest Commission and Composer/Choreographer Commission. He has been named first prize winner of the Barlow International Competition (USA), the 5th International Competition (France), Ensemblia Competition (Germany) and numbers of Chinese National Competitions. His works have been performed and recorded by the Central Philharmonic Orchestra of China, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sacramento and Virginia symphonies, the Russian Philharmonic, the Kronos, Shanghai, Chester and Ciompi String Quartets, New York's New Music Consort, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Music From China and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie among others and have been performed at many important venues throughout Asia, North America and Europe. Zhou Long has been a guest composer at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, the Ravinia Festival, and the Holland Festival, among others.
Zhou's music has been published by the Theodore Presser Company, and recorded on EMI, CRI, Teldec, Cala Records, Delos, Avan and China Record Co.
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