Wang Lu

Wang Lu’s LEAGUE COMMISSION Surge WAS PREMIERED BY the New York Philharmonic and conductor Dalia Stasevska on January 20, 21, and 22, 2023.

An additional four orchestras performed the work in the 2023-2024 and 2024-25 seasons, part of a 30-orchestra consortium performing works by women composers commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation:

Des Moines Symphony and conductor Keith Lockhart on February 3 and 4, 2024.

Pensacola Symphony Orchestra and music director Peter Rubardt on April 20, 2024.

Aspen Festival Orchestra and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk on July 7, 2024.

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ramón Tebar on October 26 and 27, 2024.

Wang’s piece has the elements of an enormous score skillfully accordioned into the shape of a much smaller one. From the flourish of its first measure, “Surge” is a restless succession of swinging gestures, martial flashes and exercises in disparate, assertive voices coming in and out of focus, then occasionally finding common ground in a tutti mass.

Joshua Baron, New York Times – review of the world premiere of Wang Lu’s Surge

Composer and pianist Wang Lu writes music that reflects a natural identification with influences from urban environmental sounds, linguistic intonation and contours, traditional Chinese music and freely improvised traditions, through the prism of contemporary instrumental techniques and new sonic possibilities. 

Wang Lu’s works have been performed internationally, by ensembles including the Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Mosaik, Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW, Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera, American Composers Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Holland Symfonia, Musiques Nouvelles, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Dal Niente, Third Sound, Yarn/Wire, Talea Ensemble and The Crossing Choir among others. 

Wang Lu has received the Berlin Prize in Music Composition, the Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond award from American Academy of Arts and Letters, commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation at the Library of Congress, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Barlow Foundation, and was a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. 

Wang Lu’s music was featured on a composer portrait concert at Miller in 2019, and programmed on festivals such as the 2014 New York Philharmonic Biennial, MATA Festival, Cresc. Biennale in Frankfurt, Gaudeamus Music Week, Tanglewood, Cabrillo Music Festival, Beijing Modern, Pacific Music Festival, Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, and Aspekte Festival in Salzburg, etc. Collaborations have included an installation at Brown University’s Cohen Gallery with artist Polly Apfelbaum and an evening of poetry and music with poet Ocean Vuong. Her recent projects include Aftertouch for Claire Chase’s Density 2036, a solo piano work Lacuna for Shai Wosner in honor of I.M. Pei, November Airs for the Talea Ensemble, and a new large ensemble work for the Seattle Modern Orchestra.

Wang Lu is the current Vanguard Emerging Opera Composer at the Chicago Opera Theatre (2020-22). Her residency will conclude with a full-length chamber opera The Beekeeper presented by the Chicago Opera Theatre on March 4^th 2022.

(January 2023)

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Photo Courtesy of Wang Lu