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The music of Chinese-American composer Lei Liang combines East and West in a colorful and dramatic fusion. His versatility ranges from brilliant orchestral and theatrical works to gentle chamber pieces. He is a master craftsman and orchestrator, yet the lasting tone of his music is nuanced and intimate, as if everything depended on the perfectly shaped gesture.
- The American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2021
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On Feb 21, 2025, Lei Liang gives TEDx talk on Tipping Point. Watch it here.
Dec 18, 2024, Harvard University Fromm Music Foundation announces composition commission awards, including Lei Liang's upcoming work for the Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente.
June 5, 2023, Gift Launches Lei Lab at UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute.
April 15, 2021, Lei Liang receives the 2021 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. Watch his acceptance speech here.
Feb 22, 2021, Lei Liang receives the American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Award. Read San Diego Union Tribune article here.
July 1, 2020, UC San Diego appoints Lei Liang as the Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Music. Read UCSD News here.
May 3-4, 2025: La Jolla, CA
Five Seasons (for pipa and string orchestra), Wu Man, pipa, Sameer Patel, conductor, La Jolla Symphony, Mandeville AuditoriumMay 5, 2025: New York, NY
Gobi Gloria (for string quartet), Prometheus Quartet, Juilliard School Chamber Music Concert, The Juilliard SchoolMay 26, 2025: Dresden, Germany
Madrigal Mongolia (string quartet), Brentano Quartet, Dresdner MusikfestspieleMay 28, 2025: Madrid, Spain
Madrigal Mongolia (string quartet), Brentano Quartet, Fundacion MutuaMay 29, 2025: Murcia, Spain
Madrigal Mongolia (string quartet), Brentano QuartetJune 17, 2025: Guangzhou, China
Lecture, Xinghai Conservatory of MusicJune 18, 2025: Santa Barbara, CA
Gobi Gloria (for string quartet), Prometheus Quartet, Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the WestJune 20 2025: Shanghai, China
Lecture, Shanghai Conservatory of MusicJune 23 2025: Beijing, China
Lecture, Peking UniversityJune 25 2025: Beijing, China
Lecture, China ConservatoryAugust 8, 2025: Damariscotta, ME
Madrigal Mongolia, Gobi Gloria, Lamento della ninfa (string quartet), Brentano QuartetSeptember 18, 2025: Boston, MA
Six Seasons, Boston Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, Samuel Solomon, dir., Boston Conservatory of MusicSeptember 20, 2025: San Diego, CA
Journey (for violin solo), Feng (cello solo), Five Seasons, and new work with paintings by Charles C. Liu, "Echoes of Shanshui", Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of ArtNovember 5, 2025: Guangzhou, China
Touching with Sound (piano), Jin Zhao, piano, Lang Lang Concert HallDec 11, 2025: New York, NY
New Work for cello and piano, commissioned by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie HallMay 20, 2026: La Jolla, CA
Inaudible Ocean, world premiere with Steven Schick (percussion), Mark Dresser (contrabass), Cory Smythe (piano), Experimental Theater, University of California, San Diego
Photo by Alex Matthews
Lei Liang Is the Recipient of the 2021 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition
Scorched Silence, Fragile Rebirth, Award-Winning Music
-The New York Times, December 13th, 2019
FEATURED DISC: SIX SEASONS
FEATURED REVIEW
“The Best Contemporary Classical on Bandcamp: July 2023”
(Peter Margasak, Bandcamp)
I’m not sure improvisation has been such a prominent feature in any previous installment of this column, and it’s been thrilling to witness how more and more conservatory-trained musicians have the skill and presence to make it work. Six Seasons is the second recording this year of Chinese composer Lei Liang’s music to incorporate significant sections of improvisation, tracing a rapidly but thoughtfully evolving path toward more experimental work. More
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The performances are, without exception, stellar. But they’d have to be: Lei Liang’s scores seem to demand one delicately constructed dramatic gesture after another. Stephen Drury’s Callithumpian Consort scintillates in the brilliantly colored Aural Hypothesis for small ensemble, and Five Seasons stars Wu Man, rockstar of the lute-like Chinese pipa, alongside the Shanghai Quartet. Passionately, but precisely, these interpreters make a powerful case for Lei Liang as a composer with the ears and the ingenuity to construct a boundless, and boundlessly thrilling, new music.
- Daniel Stephen Johnson, New York Public Radio WQXR Q2, Music Album of the Week (Dec. 24, 2012)
While Lei Liang's opera must obviously be seen to be fully experienced, especially given the press of current events, so sensitively and imaginatively does he mix and match his kaleidoscopic sonic palette to Matt Donovan's evocative, numerology-driven libretto, the quartet of voices, the curious ensembles and the electronics that keep the highly charged narrative makes a deep impression even without the stagecraft.
- Laurence Vittes, Gramophone (2020)
Lei Liang’s Verge is a gripping and engaging work for 18 solo strings, which are taken full advantage of in their timbre and potential for sound. The music here stands out among many new records for its vitality and directness…
- George Adams, American Record Guide (May 2013)
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