Zhang Xiaofu

b. 1954, Changchun

Composer

Zhang Xiaofu, the most important figure in electronic music in China, is a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music. At the age of sixteen he joined his home town’s song and dance troupe (gewutuan), playing bassoon and erhu, as well as acting as conductor and staff composer. In 1977 he was admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music where he studied composition under Wu Zuqiang. In 1988, after five years on the faculty of the Central Conservatory, where he primarily taught harmony, Zhang was selected by the Ministry of Culture to go to France for advanced studies at the École Normal de Musique Paris and the Conservatoire Edgar Varèse. He was subsequently invited to work at La Muse en Circuit and INA-GRM.

After returning to the Central Conservatory in 1993, Zhang founded the Centre of Electro-acoustic Music of China (CEMC), which subsequently hosted a series of high-profile national and international electronic-music conferences and festivals, including the 94 Musicacoustica and 96 Musicacoustica. The Centre maintains an active academic exchange programme with its European and American counterparts. Zhang has been the driving force in the formation of the Electroacoustic Music Association of China and of the master’s programme in electronic music at the Central Conservatory. Zhang’s electronic music works include Dialogues entre des Mondes Différents and Nuo Ri Lang. Yaluzangbu, scored for three Tibetan singers, electronic music and a full orchestra, integrates different media and cultural elements.

JIN PING