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At the forefront of the younger generation American composers, WANG JIE has emerged as one of the most distinctive musical voices. Elegant and elementally clear, her works are powerfully engaging, richly orchestrated and rhythmically vibrant. She spins a few notes into large music forms – a rare trait in today’s composers.
Born in Shanghai shortly after the Culture Revolution, Ms. Wang was raised during an era of breathtaking eco-nomic expansion. She was a known piano prodigy by the age of five. A scholarship from Manhattan School of Music brought her to the US where she began her composition studies under the tutelage of Nils Vigeland and Richard Danielpour.
While a student at Manhattan School and later the Curtis Institute of Music, her tragic opera NANNAN was showcased by New York City Opera's annual VOX festival. This led to the production of her chamber opera FLOWN, a meditation on lovers who must separate, by Music-Theatre Group. The Emily Dickenson inspired song cycle I DIED FOR BEAUTY was featured at the opening ceremony of Beijing Modern Music Festival. Her piano trio SHADOW dramatizes the inner life of an autistic child. It was featured by the New Juilliard Ensemble at the Museum of Modern Art and was subsequently presented by Continuum at Merkin Hall’s “China in America”.
The 2010-2011 season has been particularly fruitful. Having won the coveted Underwood Commission, her concert opera "From the Other Sky" was the centerpiece of the American Composers Orchestra's season open-ing concert at Carnegie Hall.
Ms. Wang is a publishing member of ASCAP. She lives in New York. Aside from composing, she is a semi-pro badminton player, a self-taught chef, a photographer, and plays softball on a team in Central Park.
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