Lei Liang
Photo by Alex Matthews
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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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.
Jun 24, 2020, Albany Records releases Lei's chamber opera Inheritance, featuring soprano Susan Narucki. Order it here.
Jun 23, 2020, Shanghai Conservatory of Music Press - one of the leading music publishers in China - publishes Confluence of A Hundred Streams: Narrating the Soundscapes of Lei Liang (ed. Qin Luo). Order it here.
January 11, 2025: Madison, W
Touching with Sound (piano solo), Mabel Kwan, piano, "Piano Summit Series," North Street CabaretJanuary 13, 2025: Tianjin, China
Inkscape (percussion quartet and piano), Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble, Tianjin Juilliard Concert HallJanuary 31, 2025: Boston, MA
Portrait Concert, Boston Conservatory at BerkleeFebruary 19, 2025: Chicago, IL
Touching with Sound (piano solo), Mabel Kwan, piano, Frequency Festival, ConstellationFebruary 21, 2025: Bloomington, IN
TEDx Talk, "Tipping Point," IndianaUniversity, Buskirk Chumley TheaterFebruary 23, 2025: Washington DC
Madrigal Mongolia (string quartet), Brentano Quartet, The Phillips CollectionFebruary 28, 2025: La Jolla, CA
Madrigal Mongolia (string quartet), Brentano Quartet, ArtPower, Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, UC San DiegoFebruary 28, 2025: New York, NY
Book of Time I (piano solo), Han Chen, "Piano on Park," Scandinavia HouseMarch 2, 2025: Berkeley, CA
Madrigal Mongolia (string quartet), Brentano Quartet, Cal Performances, UC BerkeleyApril 27, 2025: Katonah, NY
Madrigal Mongolia (string quartet), Brentano Quartet, Caramoor Center for Music and the ArtsMay 3-4, 2025: La Jolla, CA
Five Seasons (for pipa and string orchestra), Wu Man, pipa, Sameer Patel, conductor, La Jolla Symphony, Mandeville Auditorium
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)