Leilei Tian

Leilei Tian was born in 1971 in China. She began to study piano at the age of six. From 1988 to 1995, she studied composition in Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with Zhenmin Xu and got her Master's Degree. From 1997, she studied with Ole Lützow-Holm in Musikhögskolan in Göteborg and got her postgraduate diploma in 2001. From 2002 to 2003 she has attended the one-year master class for electro-acoustic music in Ircam in Paris.

Leilei Tian's music has been widely performed in Europe, Asia and America by leading orchestras and ensembles. She receives commissions from the French Ministry of Culture, Ircam, Royaumont, Rikskonserter in Sweden, Ensemble Intercontemporain of Paris, Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam and many different festivals and ensembles. From 2006-2008, she is the residence composer of CoMA Music Center in Sweden. She is also the winner of International Gaudeamus Competition 1999 in Amsterdam (Honorable mention), International Besançon Composition Competition for orchestra 2000 in France (1st prize); International Contemporary Music Contest "Città di Udine" 2002 in Italy (1st prize), International Composition Competition of GRAME 2002 in Lyon (1st prize) and ISCM Cash Young Composer’s Award of “World Music Days ” 2004 in Zürich.

Wu in Chinese means “to understand and be awaken to the truth through revelation and experience”. It is a word often used in Buddhism, Chinese philosophy and also daily life.
In this piece, I aim to display a transparent texture with a poetic sense of concentration. Being technically as simple as possible, I use less complex notes, rhythms and form, but emphasize on exploring the possibilities of the timbres of different instruments and their combination. Besides, to have a free but well self-controlled musical timing is very important for this piece, with an ambition to create a sense of timelessness within the motion of time.

I enjoy both composing orchestra and chamber music. Comparing to orchestra, chamber setting indeed permits me to concentrate more on each individual instrument by exploring its rich expressions, discovering and using its technique potential fully and developing each instrument’s boundless musicality while at the same time allow the imagination to create vast possibilities of combination and complex relationship between different instruments. While for orchestral writing, we somehow need to concern more the outlook as a whole, group than individual, and the writing have to be more efficient and practical as much more people are involved.  It is another kind of challenge, different, but exciting too.

www.tianleilei.org