Qu Xiaosong

A native of Guiyang, Guizhou, Qu Xiaosong is a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and theAmerican Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) known internationally for his uniquecontributions to opera, symphonic, and chamber music. Qu enrolled in the Composition Department ofCentral Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1978, under the tutelage of Du Mingxin. As a student, Qu’scomposition Mountain Song won first place in the US Tcherepnin Society Music Composition Contest.After graduating in 1983, Qu remained at the conservatory as an instructor. In the 1980s Qu and his peersheld a series of concerts to raise interest in new Chinese music of that era.

In 1989, the Columbia University Center for US-China Arts Exchange, with funding from the US AsianCultural Council, invited Qu as a visiting scholar. European audiences were thrilled with his operas Oedipus,The Death of Oedipus, and Life on a string, and Swedish national mainstream media praised Oedipus as “amasterpiece of opera”. In addition, Qu’s original and thought-provoking mixed chamber music compositionMong Dong, and his piece Cursive for the Cloud Gate Dance Theater have become internationally acclaimedworks.

Qu’s compositions span multiple genres, including soundtracks for films like The King of Children and PushingHands; symphonies like Vanishing Dinosaurs and Rustic Ways; and traditional Chinese music compositionslike Divine Comedy and Hometown. After returning to China in 2000, Qu continued to promote modernmusic and launched “Qu Xiaosong Musical Workshops”. He currently lives in Sweden where he activelycomposes, and his works remain widely performed and published around the world today.