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Zhanna Kolodub

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zhanna Yukhymivna Kolodub (; 1 January 1930 – 28 August 2025) was a Ukrainian composer and teacher, beginning as lecturer at the Kyiv Conservatory in 1952 and as professor from 1997. Her major compositions are ballets and orchestral works; she also wrote vocal compositions, chamber music, piano works and film scores. Her work has been described as having “fearless emotionalism and melodic clarity”. In 2010 she received the gold medal from the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. Work Kolodub’s major compositions are the ballets Snow Queen and Adventures of Vesnianka, the orchestral piece Lyrical Scenes of Kiev, Pictures of Nature for chamber orchestra, works for string orchestra, piano music, a wind quartet and other chamber music especially for winds. Vocal compositions include choral music, musicals, songs and film scores. Further reading * Алексеева С. Наша Жанна Колодуб Our Zhanna Kolodub . // Розповіді про музику Stories About Music .— К., 1980. * Клин В Klyn, B . Фортепіанні концерти Piano Concerts // Музика Music .— 1974.— No. 3. * Черкашина-Губаренко М. Cherkashina-Gubarenko, M. Творчі дебюти Жанни Колодуб Creative Debuts of Zhanna Kolodub .— К., 1999. * Муха, Антон. Композ

Zhanna Pliyeva

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zhanna Vasil’yevna Pliyeva (; 10 February 1949 – 22 January 2023) was a Soviet and Russian composer and pianist. Life Zhanna Pliyeva was born in Tskhinvali, Southern Ossetia. She studied music at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, Leningrad, with Dmitry Svetozarov for piano and with Orest Yevlakhov and Alexander Mnatsakanian for composition. In 1979 she worked as an assistant to Sergey Slonimsky, and later as an orchestra musician, researcher, and teacher, and from 1979 to 1985 as director of the Tskhinvali School of Music. After 1990 she became a full-time composer. Honors and awards *Prize-winner in the All-Union Composers ‘Competition in 1977 *Prize-winner in the Tokyo International Composers’ Competition, 1993 *Honoured Artist of Republic of Northern Ossetia-Alania, 1993 *President of the Presidium of the Georgian Music Society, 1989-90 Works Pliyeva’s works are often based on the folklore of the Mountain People of the northern Caucasus. She has composed for stage, orchestra, and choral, instrumental and vocal solo performance. Selected works include: *Children of the Sun (children’s opera, 2, Georgy Dzugayev), 1981 *Fatima (ballet), 1982-84 *The Passion of Adam (passion p

Zheng Lücheng

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zheng Lücheng () or Chong Ryul-song (; 27 August 1914 – 7 December 1976) was a Korean-born Chinese composer. Born during the period of Japanese colonial rule in Korea, Zheng moved to China in the 1930s, where he became active in the anti-Japanese resistance and joined the ranks of progressive intellectual and cultural circles. Over the course of his career, he created numerous military marches, operas and choral works with Chinese revolutionary themes. His most notable work is the composing of the music to the Military Anthem of the People’s Liberation Army. Early life Zheng was born Chŏng Puŭn () in the city of Gwangju in Zenranan Province, Korea, Empire of Japan (now South Korea) in 1914. He was the youngest in his family and loved music from an early age. His father, Chŏng Haeŏp (), opposed the corruption of the Korean nobility and left the , later working for a respected official’s family. Zheng’s older brothers were deeply involved in the Korean independence movement. Zheng’s father was a patriot who refused to send him to Japanese-run schools, instead enrolling him in progressive private schools. After his father’s death in 1931, his family decided to send Zheng to China. In

Zhivka Klinkova

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zhivka Klinkova (; 30 July 1924 – 23 December 2002) was a Bulgarian composer, pianist and conductor, who was the laureate of the World Youth Festival in Bucharest in 1953. She also received a diploma from Pope John Paul II in 1981 for her opera Cyril and Methodius. Early life and education Zhivka Klinkova was born in Samokov, Bulgaria on 30 July 1924. She attended the Sofia Academy of Music, where she was taught composition by Parashkev Hadjiev and piano by Dimitar Nenov. She graduated from the academy in 1951, then continued her studies with Rudolf Wagner-Régeny and Boris Blacher at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Career After she graduated from the academy she began work as a conductor with the state-sponsored Kutev Folkloric Folksong and Dance Company, and she became the only female orchestral director of a professional Bulgarian folk group. She also composed works for the group’s repertoire and worked there until 1960. She subsequently, she travelled to Germany to study, and was taught by Rudolf Wagner-Régeny from 1960 to 1966 and then by Boris Blacher in Berlin from 1966 to 1968. After she finished her studies, she began work as a freelance composer and wrote ballets, opera a

Zhou Bangyan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zhou Bangyan (; 1056–1121) was a Chinese musician, poet, and politician of the Northern Song dynasty. He was from Qiantang (in modern Hangzhou). His courtesy name was Meicheng (), and his art name was Qingzhen Jushi (). He left a two-volume poetry anthology called either the Qingzhen-ji or the Pianyu-ci. Biography Birth and early life Zhou Bangyan was born in 1056. He was a native of Qiantang (錢塘/钱塘 Qiántáng, modern-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province). Political career At the age of 23, Zhou went to live in the capital Bianliang as a student at the National Academy. In 1083 he published “Rhapsody on the capital” (汴都賦 Biandu fu), which described the bustle of Bianliang while also praising the Song dynasty’s accomplishments. The poem pleased Emperor Shenzong, and Zhou was appointed Supervisor at the National Academy (太學正/太学正 taixuezheng). In 1087, at the age of 31, Zhou was sent to Lu Prefecture in Anhui where he worked as an instructor (教授). He stayed in the provinces for ten years, mostly as Sub-prefect of Lishui County in Jiangsu, before Emperor Zhezong recalled him in 1097 to be Registrar of the National Academy (國子主簿). He found favour with Emperor Zhezong and his successor Emperor

Zhou Long

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zhou Long (; born July 8, 1953) is a Chinese American composer. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Biography Zhou Long was born in Beijing, China. Born into an artistic family, he began studying piano from an early age. Due to the artistic restrictions implemented during the Cultural Revolution, he was forced to delay his piano studies and live on a state-run farm where he operated a tractor. The deserted landscape with fierce winds and fires he experienced during the Cultural Revolution made a deep impression and influence his compositions even today. Nearing the end of the Cultural Revolution, he was able to resume his musical studies in the areas of composition, music theory, conducting and also traditional Chinese music. One year after the end of the Cultural Revolution, Zhou Long was one of one hundred students chosen from eighteen thousand applicants to study at the newly reopened Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1977. Living in Brooklyn, New York, he became the music director of Music From China, a group founded in 1984 with the aim of presenting concerts of traditional Chinese music in the United States. Under the direction of Zhou Long, Music From China e

Zhou Tian

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zhou Tian (; Pronunciation: JOH TEE-en; born 1981, in Hangzhou, China. Zhou is his family name) is a Chinese-American composer of contemporary classical music. His Concerto for Orchestra received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2018, making him the first Chinese-born composer and the second Asian composer (following Tōru Takemitsu in 1995) honored in that category. In 2019, thirteen American symphony orchestras jointly commissioned “Transcend” in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad’s completion. That same year, the Beijing Music Festival named him “Artist of the Year.” His orchestral work “Gift” opened the Shanghai Symphony’s 140th season and received its US premiere by the New York Philharmonic in 2020. In 2022, he received the Sousa-ABA-Ostwald Award from the American Bandmasters Association for Sinfonia, becoming the first Asian-American winner in the award’s 66-year history. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Zhou Tian earned his Masters of Music degree from the Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California. He is Professor of Composition at Michigan State U

Zhu Jian'er

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zhu Jian’er (; born Zhu Rong-shi, October 18, 1922 – August 15, 2017), courtesy name Zhu Pu-chen, was a Chinese symphonic composer and songwriter. Biography Zhu was born in Tianjin, China. In his early years, his grandfather moved his family to Shanghai. His family consisted of flour millers, and his father died when Zhu was three. Out of admiration for Nie Er, Zhu Rong-shi changed his name to Zhu Jian’er. He began composing in 1940 and pursued composition studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1955. He was a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory. He composed for both Western and Chinese instruments and his works have been performed around the world. In 2000 he was commissioned by Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project to compose Silk Road Reverie. His 1950 revolutionary work Days of Emancipation (翻身的日子, Fānshēn de Rìzi; for banhu and Chinese orchestra) is well known in the West from its appearance on the 1981 CBS Masterworks compilation Phases of the Moon: Traditional Chinese Music. Zhu died on August 15, 2017, in Shanghai. List of major works Orchestral: *Jieri Xuqu 节日序曲 (Festival Overture), Op.10 (1958) *Symphony-Cantata: Yingxiong de Shipian 英雄的诗篇 (Poems of heroes), Op.14 (Original:1959