Around the Music Festival

Tan Dun, a contemporary composer representing China, will be appointed head of Music Department at Bard College in the United States. Bard College is a prestigious school with a wide campus in northern New York State and is known for providing workplaces to intellectuals such as Hannah Arendt who escaped from Nazi Germany during the World War Ⅱ. Music Department is called by the name of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. There is a wide course from baroque to contemporary music. Also known as the “Dual Degree Program” for 5 years which can acquire a bachelor’s degree in both music and liberal arts as an undergraduate student. The headquarters of John Cage Trust is in the College, they are putting emphasis on contemporary music education, and they also have a rare Chinese traditional music institute in the whole country.

Tan was born in 1957, Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, China. His boys’ time was at the time of the Cultural Revolution, so he was sent to the rural areas and lived in the People’s communes. After that, He learned at Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He moved to New York in 1985 and entered the doctoral course at Columbia University. Established a unique style incorporating elements of Chinese indigenous music, classical music, contemporary music learned in New York. In 1997 he was composing “Symphony 1997 Heaven, Earth, Mankind” for the Hong Kong returning ceremony and was awarded the 73rd Academy Award Composition Award in 2001 with the music of the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” . In 2008, under the request from Google, he composed Internet Symphony No. 1 “Hero” for YouTube Symphony Orchestra, and has worked on broad genre music.

Photo：http://tandun.com/


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