Bright Sheng

From Wind Repertory Project

Biography

“Fusion? Everything in music is fusion. Stravinsky is fusion. Shostakovitch is fusion. Debussy is fusion. Brahms is fusion...I’m fusion. Of course it’s possible.”

These encouraging words from Leonard Bernstein to Bright Sheng (b. 1955) have been a guiding force. Since arriving in the United States in 1982 with “no friends, no English and no money,” Sheng has been able to realize with his music the intensity and complexity of his experience, creating an oeuvre that “merges diverse musical customs in works that transcend conventional aesthetic boundaries." Recipient of the 2001 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award,” Sheng was runner-up for both the 1989 and 1991 Pulitzer Prize.

Born in Shanghai, China in 1955, Sheng and his family were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. This decade-long cultural cleansing by Mao Zedong is described by Sheng as “one of the world’s holocausts...the cost to the Chinese people cannot be counted.” Avoiding compulsory farm-service through his musical talents, Sheng discovered his love for Chinese folk music, as well as his predilection for music composition, while in a provincial band in Tibet. As the scourge of the Cultural Revolution began to dissolve in 1976, Sheng was accepted as a composition student at Shanghai Conservatory, from which he graduated with top honors. Sheng left China for New York City, ultimately finding his path through studies at Queens College, then Columbia University, and finally the music festivals at Aspen and Tanglewood. Sheng developed his transcontinental voice under the wings of top musicians such as conductor Gerard Schwarz, pianist Samuel Lipman, and composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein. Sheng admits: “I’m a mixture of both cultures, but I consider myself both 100% American and 100% Chinese.”