Xiaoyong Chen

Xiaoyong Chen was born on 13 May 1955 in Beijing, where he first studied violin and then composition at the Central Conservatory from 1980 to 1985. Immediately afterwards, he completed postgraduate studies with György Ligeti at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg until 1989.
Chen celebrated his European debut as a composer in 1987 at the Donaueschinger Musiktage with the world premiere of the 1st String Quartet by the Auryn Quartet. In 1992, the orchestral work Dyeh was premiered as a commission from Südwestfunk Baden-Baden. In the same year, Chen received the Composition Prize of the Forum of Young Composers of the WDR for his composition Yün for soprano and 11 instrumentalists, which was premiered in Cologne under Peter Eötvös with the Ensemble Modern and subsequently presented in Leipzig and Dresden. In 1999, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie produced the portrait CD Invisible Landscapes in co-operation with Radio Bremen, which was awarded the highest score in all five quality categories in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. In June 2002, the composition XI-FUSION III for ensemble was commissioned by the Asia-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg and premiered.
Xiaoyong Chen's oeuvre includes orchestral and chamber music with Chinese instruments, among others. His music is regularly performed at the most important festivals and in numerous concert series on almost every continent. He writes commissioned music and collaborates with orchestras, festivals and universities worldwide. These include festivals such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Holland Festival, the Festival Présences Paris, World Music Days, Festival MaerzMusik, Huddersfield Festival, Warsaw Autumn, Cologne Biennale, Soundstreams Festival Toronto, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Munich Biennale etc., orchestras Chen works with include: Gulbenkian Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, KBS Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Arditti Quartet, Auryn Quartet, Kairos Quartet etc.
Chen has worked intensively with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen since 1994, from whom he receives generous musical and artistic support. The most important events with his music include a four-hour portrait concert with the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg in 2008.
Chen was Professor of Composition at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. Guest professorships constantly take him to China and East Asia. He is a member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg.
Chen is fascinated by the emergence and development of the individual sound; his works often have as their starting point a supposedly simple sound event that still seems untouched by compositional elaboration. For Chen, composing is a communication with sound, an exploration of its still hidden possibilities. His works therefore possess an openness that gives the impression that even the composer is not a priori aware of where the music will lead him.

Biography can be reprinted free of charge in programme booklets with the following credits: Reprinted with kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes/Sikorski Music Publishers