J.S.Bach; Tom Waits; Portishead; PJ Harvey; Björk; Kurt Weills; Prince; Serge Gainsbourg; Gavin Bryars; Kurtag; Monteverdi; Xenakis; Grisey; Rem Koolhaas; Dou Wei; Faye Wong; Shiingo Ringo; Tricky; Cesaria Evora; Caetano Veloso; Satie; Ligeti; Giya Kancheli; Merzbow; Lachenmann; Gubaidulina; John Zorn; Robert Wilson; Yasunari Kawabata; H. Murakami; Takashi Murakami; Kurosawa; Ozu; Tadao Ando; Radiohead; Johnny Cash; Elvis Costello; J.M.Coetzee; Baudrillard; Giacinto Scelsi; Heiner Goebbels; Telefon Tel Aviv; Arab Strap; Bartok; Stravinsky; Lutoslawski; Armstrong; Nina Simone; Edith Piaf; Diamanda Gallas; Paolo Conte; Chabuca Granda; Evan Parker; Peter Evans; Morton Feldman; Brahms; Berio; Schoenberg; Laurie Anderson; Cynthia Hopkins; Meredith Monk; Astor Piazolla; Ken Ishii; Otomo Yoshihide; Dickson Dee; Louis Andriessen; Kraftwerk; Matmos; Lee Ronaldo; TV on the Radio; DJ Krush; Múm; Wong Kar-Wai; David Lynch; Kundera; Hemingway; Jack London; John Lee Hooker; Sigur Rós; Ginsberg; Bukowski; G. García Márquez; Yu Hua; Su Tong; Lao She; Dong Qiao; Krzysztof Kieslowski; Peter Sellars; Herzog; Bergman; Fellini; Jim Jarmusch; Godard; Nagisa Oshima; Satre; Camus; Junot Díaz; John Galliano; Rei Kawabuko; Yohji Yamamoto; Francis Bacon; Louis Bourgeois; Cindy Sherman; Zhang Xiaogang; early blues, Osho; Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese classic litereature/poetry; various underground German and Japanese noise artists; and nearly all folk music ... ...
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“electrifying… an attractive score … “ “cutting-edge…to whom the term ‘young composer’ and ‘the pianist’ can hardly do justice ” (New York Times)
“ineffably quaking… stirs a scene” (La Presse, Montréal)
"reinvents herself daily, and so does her music… combined with a fiercely disciplined technique… doesn’t feel the need to tame her wild side in the process” (TimeOut-NYC)
“...reconciles savageness and quietness ..." (Volkeskrant, Amsterdam)
"...the strongest impression made yet, a political statement against oppression and violence" (De Rode Leeuw, Amsterdam)
“…one senses the exceptional ear, exploration and the results are impeccably powerful” (Le Devoir, Montréal)
Du Yun’s written compositions, ranging from solos to orchestras, have been performed across North America, Europe, Mexico, Argentina and China, broadcasted on Radio-Shanghai, Radio-Canada, Radio Canada Internationale (RCI), Espace Musique 100.7 FM, FBi 94.5 (Australia), NPR-Art of the States, SinoVision (US), Sveriges Radio (Sweden); WFMT, WCKR and l’Union Européene de Radio-Télévision; spotlighted at international festivals such as Ultima Festival (Norway), Internacional Cervantino Festival (Mexico), Gaudeamus (Netherlands) and Musica Nova (Finland).
Among the ensembles and orchestras who have performed Du Yun's music are Radio Chamber Orchestra of The Netherlands, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne of Canada, le Decadanse of France, Nueva Musíca of Mexico, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Bang-On-a-Can, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Continuum, Oberlin Orchestra, North/South Consonance Chamber Orhcestra, and International Contemporary Ensemble (I.C.E), of which she is the founding member.
Awards, grants and commissions she has received include those from the Rockefeller Foundation, Chamber Music America Commissioning, the Fromm Foundation, 2008 Commissioning Music/USA, Aaron Copland Award, Jerome Foundation, ASCAP, American Music Center, Greenwall Foundation, Shanghai New Music Foundation, UCross Foundation, New York Trumpet Festival, Meet the Composer, audience award of the Montréal International Forum of 2004, and the solo composition award of the British Bass Guild.
Aside from composing notated music for concert halls, Du Yun’s music also spans from writing for art shows, experimental theatres, modern dance, to improvising/performing actively at avant-garde venues on the amplified/processed Chinese zither (zheng), piano, laptop, and with her own voice. Propelled by the kernel of genre-defying, her approach to music, regardless its formation, has always aimed to be ultimately visceral; to evoke a sense of corporeality distilled from a stripped-down spirituality. Cast as the leading role of her own hour-long music-theatre, Zolle, she was seen on stage at the Performance Space 122 for a week-run in October 2005, with ICE and director Lydia Steir. Recently signed with Tag Team Records as a songwriter and singer, her first "electronic cabaret" LP is scheduled to release in US and China in early 2010.
Her performing persona is known as 'duYun.'
A transplant from Shanghai, China, Du Yun now lives in New York City. She is an alumna of the Shanghai Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory (B.M), and Harvard University (M.A; PhD). Presently, she serves on the composition faculty of SUNY-Purchase.
Du Yun is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Her concert compositions can be heard on labels such as Wugui (Beijing), Shanghai Classical Music, ATMA Classique, and New Focus. Upcoming on Oxingale with the cellist Matt Haimovitz.
Hi there! The Danish composer Per Nørgård's music has been much on my mind the past few years. Arguably the most important now living Scandinavian composer also has a remarkable output for the guitar. I spent a couple of years working with the composer on this repertoire, spanning from 1973 to 2000, in order to embrace the emerging performance practice associated with his work.
I have just uploaded 10 new tracks, all taken from "Tales From the North", my double CD box with the complete guitar works of Danish composer Per Nørgård. Also, in my latest blog you will find recent reviews of this release.
For further reading about the composer, this is an excellent website, with articles by a series of scholars and performers that have dedicated much study to his work:
Hello duYun, thank you for accepting my add. Your musical-art is brilliant and avantgarde. I like your performance very much. Please have a look at my site www.astrohealth.de If you need some singing bowls for your act, I..ll be there. Best wishes Thomas
Hi and thanks for the friendship! Here’s a video from our most recent tour, in March-April. In an attempt to merge traditions of improvisation in Vietnamese and contemporary Western culture, this is a performance of Tu Dai Oán, a traditional Vietnamese song. In this performance with Thanh Thuy (playing the dan tranh), Stefan Östersjö (playing 10-string guitar) and Henrik Frisk (laptop), this traditional tune is overlapped with free improvisation with electronics. The performance is from a Scandinavian tour in spring 2009 with The Six Tones, a Swedish/Vietnamese project merging traditional and experimental music. The video was recorded at Atalante in Gothenburg by Niklas Rydén.
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