Since moving to the United States from China in 1982, composer Bright (Zongliang) Sheng has steadily built a world reputation for his fusion of Eastern and Western musical styles.
He has composed stage, orchestral, chamber and vocal works that have been widely performed to great acclaim and appeared on several recordings. He is also a pianist and conductor, appearing in concerts in each role.
Sheng comes from a generation of Chinese-American artists who produced an active company of composers, including Chen Yi, Tan Dun and Zhou Long. In their skilful orchestrations, they bridge East and West, lyrical and dissonant styles, as well as historical and contemporary themes to create elegant compositions with a distinctive signature.
In their own way, they are a barometric indicator of modern compositional tastes and styles.
Born in Shanghai in 1955, Sheng started to learn piano at the age of four. During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), he worked for seven years as a pianist and percussionist in a folk music and dance troupe in Northwest China's Qinghai Province.
He said: "I took piano lessons when I was a child. According to my teacher, I was talented, though I didn't really like it.
''Then the 'cultural revolution' started, and I had to stop playing. I was rather happy at first since I didn't have to practice. But, a year later, I heard piano music on the radio one day, and I realized how much I missed playing the piano. Shortly afterwards, I decided I would like to play the piano all my life, though I didn't think I could be a musician."
During his stay in Qinghai, home to many ethnic groups such as the Tibetans, Mongolians and Hui, Sheng learned and collected numerous examples of folk music. "I did not realize what a great influence this folk music would have on me later," he said.
For instance, he learned very well the Qinghai folk-song genre called hua'er (flowers), which is inspired by the local Hua'er Festival held on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar.
In some of his compositions, Sheng uses the melodic style of Qinghai folk songs. In his opera "Song of Majnun," two of the main themes are based on Qinghai and Tibetan motifs.
In 1978, he became one of the first students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, when China resumed college education. There, he got a bachelor's degree in music composition.
In 1982, he moved to New York to attend Queens College, a senior college of the City University of New York (where he got a Master of Arts degree), and then Columbia University (where he got a Doctor of Musical Arts degree).
Sheng draws on Eastern and Western influences well in his music.
"People acknowledge 'artistic license' while I embrace 'cultural license' - the right to reflect my appreciation and understanding of both cultures in my work.
"You can either struggle with cultural identity or take good advantage of it. I do not know what my music will be like in five or 10 years or even in which direction it is going. But I think less and less about whether some element I am using is Chinese or Western. I write whatever excites me while continuing to study both cultures."
He added: "It is crucial that one knows both sides truly well. Therefore, Western audiences don't need to understand Chinese music in order to appreciate you, and vice versa."
Proclaimed as "an innovative composer who merges diverse musical customs in works that transcend conventional aesthetic boundaries," Sheng received the coveted MacArthur Genius Award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation last November.
(China Daily August 24, 2002)
