Chou Wenzhong (June 29, 1923 - October 25, 2019) was a Chinese-American composer. His ancestral home is Changzhou, Jiangsu, and he was born in Yantai, Shandong. After graduating from Guangxi University in 1946, he went to the United States and studied composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. He entered Columbia University in 1949 and studied musicology and composition. He obtained a master's degree in music in 1954 and became a U.S. citizen in 1958.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong is a world-famous composer, a lifelong academician of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, associate dean of Columbia University School of the Arts, and director of the Doctoral Institute of Composition. The main works include: "Landscape", "Spring Breeze in the Flower Moon", "How Many Flowers Have Fallen", "Thinking of the World", "Walking Grass", "Fishermen's Song", "Change", "Valley Eagle", "Mountain Waves", "Floating Clouds" "wait.

On the night of October 25, 2019, Beijing time, Mr. Zhou Wenzhong passed away at his home in the United States at the age of 96.

Chinese name: Zhou Wenzhong

Nationality: United States

Birthplace: Yantai, Shandong

Date of birth: June 29, 1923

Date of death: October 25, 2019

Occupation: Composer

Graduation institution: Columbia University

Representative works: Orchestral music "The Flower Moon Is in the Spring Breeze", etc., piano music "Yangguan Santie" etc., "How Many Flowers Have Fallen"

Biography of the Character

On June 29, 1923, Zhou Wen Zhong was born in Yantai, China, and grew up in Shanghai. He is a close disciple of the famous French-American composer Edgar Varèse, a representative figure of electronic music in the 20th century. Won a scholarship to study architecture at Yale University in the United States. However, due to his passion for music since childhood, he gave up his scholarship one week after arriving at the University of Kentucky and transferred to the New England Conservatory of Music to study composition.

In 1949, he moved to New York, where he met the 20th century composer Varys, and began to study composition with him. He later became a close friend of Varys. After Waris's death, Zhou Wenzhong took on the responsibility of managing his musical legacy, including editing Wariss's works and completing his unfinished works.

Since the 1950s, Zhou Wenzhong has been involved in education, and he has devoted more than thirty years to Columbia University in the United States, serving as the deputy dean of the School of Art and the director of the Doctoral Institute of Composition.

In 1954, Zhou Wenzhong published the orchestral work "How Many Flowers Fall", which shocked the music world and won many awards, including the Rockefeller Literary Award, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Commissioned creations, etc.

In 1964, Zhou Wenzhong taught in the Composition Department of Columbia University. His students included Chinari Weng, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Sheng Zongliang and Tan Dun, etc., all of whom are among the world's famous composers.

In 1978, Zhou Wenzhong founded the Sino-US Art Center and made significant contributions to cultural exchanges between China and the United States.

From 1984 to 1991, Zhou Wenzhong served as the first director of the Fritz Reiner Center for Contemporary Music at Columbia University and a visiting professor at Nankai University.

In 2007, Xinghai Conservatory of Music hired Zhou Wenzhong as an honorary professor.

In November 2018, Xinghai Conservatory of Music held the "Establishment Ceremony of Zhou Wenzhong Music Research Center and Zhou Wenzhong International Music Academic Symposium".

On the night of October 25, 2019 (Beijing time), Mr. Zhou Wenzhong, composer, educator, and cultural ambassador, passed away at his home in the United States at the age of 96.

Main Works

Zhou Wenzhong is the first Chinese composer recognized in the West, with works such as "Landscape" (1949), "How Many Flowers Fall" (1954), " "Gu Ying" (1989) and other works are considered to be masterpieces that are independent of both Western and Eastern music.

Zhou Wenzhong’s works include the orchestral piece "The Flower Moon Is in the Spring Breeze", "Two Proud Pieces of the Tang Dynasty", "Landscape Painting", "Fishermen's Songs", "Hexagrams", "How Many Flowers Fall", etc., piano The song "Three Layers of Yangguan", etc., the trumpet, brass and percussion ensemble "The Nun's Monologue", the oratorio "Sifan".

Features of the work

Since the 1940s, Zhou Wenzhong has been committed to the fusion of Eastern and Western music, opening up a unique path that will have a critical impact on the future direction of world music. His works not only reflect the artistic conception and connotation of Chinese poetry, painting and traditional philosophy, but also integrate the essence of Eastern and Western music theories and techniques.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong combines modern Western music with Chinese classical literature and art (poems, songs, calligraphy), with profound connotations and artistic conception, and a strong oriental sentiment.

Awarding Honors

In 1963, he won the National Association for the Arts Award.

In 1965, he won the Kao Shan Lai Foundation Award.

In 1982, he was elected as a lifelong member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1985, together with the famous physicist Wu Jianxiong, he won the Qingyun Award from the Chinese American Association.

In September 2004, Zhou Wenzhong was awarded the title of Honorary Professor by the Central Conservatory of Music of China.

The Chinese-American composer Zhou Wenzhong, the French-Chinese painter Zao Wou-Ki, and the Chinese-American architect Mr. I.M. Pei are known as the "Three Art Treasures" of overseas Chinese.