Biography

Lei Liang (b.1972) is a Chinese-born American composer whose works have been described as “hauntingly beautiful and sonically colorful” by The New York Times, and as “far, far out of the ordinary, brilliantly original and inarguably gorgeous” by The Washington Post.

Lei Liang is the winner of the Rome Prize, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission, a Creative Capital Award, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His concerto Xiaoxiang for saxophone and orchestra was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2015. His orchestral work A Thousand Mountains, A Million Streams, won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 2021.

Lei Liang was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, the Fromm Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, among others. Lei Liang’s seventeen portrait albums are released on prestigious labels. He authored and edited eleven books and published more than sixty articles. As a musicologist, Lei Liang leads projects that help preserve the music of the Mongolian choor (a two-stringed fiddle) and uttin duur (long song), and the literati sanxian (a three-stringed plucked instrument) of the Qing dynasty.

From 2013-2016, Lei Liang served as Composer-in-Residence at the Qualcomm Institute where his multimedia works preserve and reimagine cultural heritage through combining scientific research and advanced technology. In 2023, the Institute launched “Lei Lab” where he continues to collaborate with engineers, geologists, biologists, mathematicians, oceanographers and software developers, to explore what he calls “the unique potential for learning offered by creative listening.” 

Lei Liang was invited to give keynote speeches at the American Philosophical Society, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Chinese National Painting Academy, Harvard University Department of History of Art and Architecture, among others. He was the featured TEDx Talk speaker on “Tipping Points” in 2025. In 2026, Appassionata Estate in Oregon’s Willamette Valley released a special commemorative Pinot Noir named in honor of Lei Liang’s composition Six Seasons.

Lei Liang received degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (B.M. and M.M.) and Harvard University (Ph.D.). He is Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego. His catalogue of more than a hundred works is published exclusively by Schott Music Corporation (New York).