Wenchen Qin

Wenchen Qin studied composition with Xu Shuya and Zhu Jianer at the Shanghai Conservatory from 1987. After completing these in 1992, he taught at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. A DAAD scholarship enabled him to study with Nicolaus A. Huber in 1998, and three years later he received his diploma with distinction from the Folkwang Hochschule Essen. He has been teaching again at the Central Conservatory in Beijing since September 2001.

Qin works with excellent ensembles such as Ensemble Recherche, L'Ensemble Itinéraire, Ensemble Europa Antidogma, Tokyo City Symphony Orchestra, RSO Berlin and Ensemble of Line. Organisers have included NDR, WDR, BR, Radio France and festivals such as the New Music Biennale in Hanover, the Holland Festival, the Transatlantic Festival and the Chinese-Japanese Music Festival.

With the partial inclusion of traditional Chinese instruments, he constructs a quite individual bridge between Chinese tradition and the Western avant-garde. His musical language combines subtle, intense and diverse sounds with exciting development processes.

This biography can be reproduced free of charge in concert programs with the following credit: Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes/Sikorski.