Ying Wang was born in Shanghai, China. Her music education started at the age of four, when she received her first piano lessons from her father Xilin Wang. She studied at Shanghai Conservatory of Music and received her bachelor's degree in music composition in 2002. Soon after, she moved to Germany to study composition with Prof. York Höller, Rebecca Saunders, Prof. Johannes Schöllhorn and electronic composition with Prof. Michael Beil at the Cologne Conservatory of Music and Dance (Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln). In 2010 she is completing a master degree in contemporary music at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt). 2012 she was selected the Cursus de composition et d’informatique musicale in IRCAM Paris.
Ying Wang’s music is well-crafted and distinctive and has utmost passion and dramatic flair. She is successfully combining the sounds of China with new music elements of European avantgarde music, creating a unique personal synthesis of Asian and Western points of view. Prof. York Höller (Grawemeyer Award 2010) mentioned in his assessment of her master´s thesis: ”Ying Wang’s music language is getting more and more outstanding and is coming into maturity. She is one of the best composers of the young chinese generation”.
Recently she lives in Berlin and Shanghai.
Q Hi, how you doing? We know each other long time and but I have not seen you in live since the fall of 2014, or 2015 in tiny pretty city Vienna, thanks to KulturKontakt Austria. I have so many questions I can’t choose the correct one, let’s start with those: When did you know you wanted to become a composer? Which instruments do you play? When and why did you start playing?
YW. Intuition + Instict! I was born in a musical family in Shanghai, my father is a composer, and my mother was a ballet dancer. From an early age, I grew up under the influence of Western / European music. So making music is very natural for me. Since the age of two, I have sat with my father in front of the piano to learn notes, keyboards and melody. When I was five years old, I began to learn to play the piano. During the practice interval, I would imitate or improvise small melodies. Perhaps since then, I have had to be a composer.
Q Who are you inspired by?
YW. My inspirations coming from the daily life and my experience. My observation from the world, the people and the life. As a female composer born in China and developing in Europe, this time given us too much information, resources and challenges. At the same time, a large number of problems also exist in societies with diverse cultures worldwide. As a contemporary composer, I often ask myself, how I can make my creation and the times closely related to my society. The artist should, like the A mirror, truly reflect her time and current situation.
Q Coolest event you’ve been to?
YW. I was by a live concert Bjork in Beijing around 1998, in that time; I was first year in conservatory. My best friend is also the fan of Björk. We are listening lots songs of her and like she’s music very much. Another reason a like her: she is always go improve she’s music language. And she has so many different Style and Character.
Q Your works have been performed in China, Europe and United States, in festivals and venues such as Konzerthaus Berlin, ZKM/Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe Center Pompidou, UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing, Lucerne Festival, Tage für Neue Musik Zürich, Eclat Stutgart Acht Brücken 2013/2017/2019, Wien Modern 2015/2016 and others.
And you have collaborated among others with Markus Stenz, Brad Lubman, Marcus Creed, Muhai Tang, Nina Janßen(Ensemble Modern), Camilla Hoitenga, Dimitri Vassilakis(Ensemble Intercontemporain), Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Gürzenich Orchester and Brandeburger Symphoniker. Is there a hidden meaning in any of your music?
YW. Every composition is different. I have music about the relationship between Humanoid and Machine: “ROBOTICtack”(2017) – For Ensemble and electronics, Also piece about the dirty in our mind/mouth/eyes and nature: “Schmutz” for violin solo and Ensemble (2019). Also piece with my background Chinese Kulture: “TunTu”. That is two Chinese characters 吞吐, the meaning is breathe in and breathe out. That piece is for Baritone Saxophone and live electronics, the breathe is with the musician on the stage also the breathe in cosmos/Galaxy. Thousand kind of breather we cannot see with the human eyes.
Q You was the recipient of the International Ensemble Modern Academy Scholarship (2009/10), Matrix 11 and Matrix 12 the ExperimentalStudio SWR, Herrenhaus Edekoben on recommendation of Peter Eötvös and Giga-Hertz-Preis 2013. And also you are the winner for much composition competition as 5th Brandenburg Biennale 2014, 35th Irino Prize for chamber orchester, 2015 composer in Resident by Festival Forum Neuer Musik in Deutschlandfunk Köln. 2017 30th Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis and Release of the CD „TunTu“ on the label WERGO. In 2019, KlangForum Wien premiered her „MusicBox“ for Video and Ensemble at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and „SCHMUTZ“ for violin solo and Ensemble at the Acht Brücken Festival in Cologne. Were you ever influenced by old records & tapes?
YW . When I was a teenager, I listened to a lot of tapes from Chinese rock bands. The lyrics of those songs are mostly rebellious. The manic rhythm and sometimes the melancholic atmosphere create a unique aura. This rock music, which first appeared in China at that time, strongly attracted me. These factors have continued to appear in my Compositions. The most famous rock musicians of 1990: Cui Jian, He Yong, and the Black Panther.
Q Following the enthusiastic reception of her recent works you have received several commissions by the Quartet Diotima and Musik Fabrik. Have you been in other competitions? Prizes?
YW. Since 2003, I have come to the Cologne Conservatory in Germany to continue my studies. Since then I have been receiving honors from several European composition competitions. Since I started teaching at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2013, some of my composition students have also begun to emerge in European music competitions. At the International Competition of the Moscow Conservatory for young composers NEW CLASSICS in 2018, I joined Tristan Murail and Ivan Fedele as judges of this composition competition.
Thanks so much for talking to me :*
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