Chinese-American composer Zhou Tian's recent premieres include “First Sight,” commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra, “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” by the Indianapolis Symphony, “Blowing Westward” at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, “Piano Trio” at the Kennedy Center, and “The Grand Canal Symphonic Suite” at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Fanfare has called his music “absolutely beautiful…an unusual but utterly satisfying fusion of French flavors with an American view of a Chinese poem.”

Mr. Zhou’s music has been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Reno Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Symphony in C, the Arditti, Biava and Great Wall string quartets, the Third Angle Ensemble, flutist Jeffrey Khaner, pianist Yuja Wang and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Zhou has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Green Bay Symphony and Chicago's Music In the Loft Concert Series. His works have been performed by renowned conductors such as Osmo Vänskä, Christoph Campestrini, Rossen Milanov, Sarah Hicks, Christoph Köenig, Daniel Meyer, Christoph Eberle, David Hayes, John Oliver and Laura Jackson.

Zhou has won first prize in the Washington International Competition for Composers, first prize in ASCAP and Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition, three ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and Composition Fellowships from the Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival. His works have been recorded on Naxos, Cedille, Innova and Pacific records.

Zhou’s large-scale symphonic suite for soloists, orchestra and chorus, “The Grand Canal,” was performed during a nationally televised celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The work was also selected as a theme at 2010 Shanghai World Expo. His original score for “Eternal Beloved” (Ai You Lai Sheng), a romantic art film and a box-office hit in China, received critical acclaim.

Born in 1981 in the city of Hangzhou, China, Zhou holds music degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music (B.M.), the Juilliard School (M.M.) and the University of Southern California (D.M.A.) His private teachers have included Jennifer Higdon, Richard Danielpour, Christopher Rouse, Stephen Hartke, and Donald Crockett (composition); Meng-Chieh Liu and Antoinette Perry (piano).

Zhou joined the music faculty at Colgate University in 2011. Highlights of his upcoming commissions include the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Curtis On Tour. Visit www.ZhouTian.org for more.

Note: Zhou Tian is pronounced: Jo Tyen. Zhou is his family name and Tian is his given name. Please do not use previously dated biographies. 1/2012

Now playing: an excerpt from Prism, performed by Yuja Wang. ©Zhou Tian (ASCAP) & The Curtis Institute of Music. Reload

"The piece is absolutely beautiful. Zhou evokes a sense of space and timelessness that suits the text perfectly. The performance is of the utmost sensitivity.”

—Colin Clarke, Fanfare

“'Blowing Westward' by Zhou Tian (b. 1981) is a mesmerizing piece based on an impression of a world described by Chinese writer SuTong. The artist seemed to own the piece technically and emotionally as well, virtually hypnotizing the audience with his reading."

—New York Concert Review

"Zhou Tian’s Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems mixes narration in and out of the instrumental fabric, which in this instance is the Debussian trio of flute, viola, and harp. It’s an unusual but utterly satisfying fusion of French flavors with an American view of a Chinese poem. The interplay is ingenious, at times suggesting a Chinese composer’s quotations of a French composer’s Asian-tinged melodies. The recording is a model of clarity and finely honed balances, and the performers are of a uniformly high level."

—Michael Cameron, Fanfare

"The first half of the evening was an unqualified success. Zhou Tian's attractive A Thousand Years of Good Prayers effectively communicated the goals of the composer, which he eloquently and succinctly described from stage. The simplicity of the piece's was what made it so appealing. The horns proclaim a disjunct melodic statement at the beginning of the work, featuring dissonant leaps and sharp dotted rhythms, and, over the ensuing ten minutes, Zhou proceeds to gradually smooth over these rough edges, ending in a serene cushion of string sound."

"Zhou's harmonic language and orchestration mix Ravel and Barber with a hint of his native China, albeit without the edgy grit of Chen Yi or flamboyant theatricality of Tan Dun. Still, the piece feels first and foremost like an honest musical utterance, which is important in today's day and age. Unabashedly tonal, with a true sense of tension and resolution, the arc of the piece convinces through and through. This is an impressive essay from a 30-year old composer, and Zhou Tian is certainly a compositional voice to watch. This was the one work where Koenig seem to bask in the sheer color of the orchestra, letting phrases linger nicely. The orchestra played with complete conviction and respect for a new score."

—ConcertoNet

"The program opened with A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Zhou Tian's evocative tone poem inspired by an ancient Chinese proverb that states "it would take a thousand years of prayers to bring about any good relationship." Commissioned by the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it in 2009, the work began with striking drum rolls and brass fanfares. Then, it moved through dramatic expressions of yearning woodwind figures against throbbing strings, gradually reaching its intended Zen-like state of spiritual bliss."

—Houston Chronicle

"Making his ISO debut, Austrian Christoph Eberle, superbly guiding its exceptional musicians, opened the concert with 'A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,' an exquisite piece by Zhou Tian."

"According to Zhouʼs notes in the printed program, his composition is drawn from a Chinese proverb 'that means a good relationship between two people always takes a thousand years of good prayers to bring about.' Zhou also says he 'wanted to write a piece to convey a sense of spiritual bliss.' In this effort he was thoroughly successful."

—The Indianapolis Examiner

"[A Thousand Years of Good Prayers] is an appealing work that expresses an outlook on life in a story-like way...[Conductor] Campestrini called Zhou to the stage to collect his standing ovation..."

—Green Bay Press-Gazette

"…a winning collection of vocal chamber works by Pierre Jalbert, Stacy Garrop, Vivian Fung, Lita Grier and Zhou Tian." - CD of the Week.

—Chicago Tribune

(on Billy Collins Suite)

"Zhou Tian's musical setting is the most delicate, lyrical, and beautiful of all the compositions in the Suite and provides a fitting conclusion to the proceedings."

—John J. Puccio, Classical Candor

(on Billy Collins Suite)

“Rarely do I listen to a CD of new works and instantly feel that every work/set is not only masterfully crafted but a true masterpiece; these all unquestionably are.”

—Classical Voice of New England

(on Billy Collins Suite)

"Excellent playing. Quite good writing. A bit lacks direction, but some very attractive ideas. He is going places."

—Janos Starker

Letter to cellist Hamilton Cheifetz on the performance

of Zhou's Sonata for Solo Cello "Rhyme"

"Chinese composer Zhou Tian's 'Blowing Westward' is a somewhat impressionistic piece based on a contemporary Chinese short story. The composition enabled Mr. Cheung, who commissioned this new work, to explore the ghostly overtones of the marimba clustering in the lower notes.

—The Washington Times

"If Zhou's ['Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems…'] isn't the most effective setting in the bunch, it's certainly the prettiest...As a Billy Collins enthusiast, I think this project mostly does the poet proud.”

—Audiophile Audition

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