Du Yun

Du Yun (traditional Chinese: 杜韻, simplified Chinese: 杜韵) is a Chinese-born American composer, performer, vocalist and performance artist.

In 2006, Du Yun joined the composition faculty at the State University of New York-Purchase.

In its decade review, UK's Classic FM listed Du Yun's winning of the Pulitzer as No. 6 in "10 ways the 2010s changed classical music forever."

Rolling Stone Italia named her as one of the women composers who defined the 2010s.

Du Yun was born in Shanghai, China.

She began studying piano at the age of four, attending the primary school Shanghai Conservatory of Music for piano.

She studied composition at the middle school Shanghai Conservatory of Music with Deng Erbo.

Du Yun later moved to the United States and graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree in composition, under Randolph Coleman, and received a Ph.D. in music composition from Harvard University with Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky.

On her earlier years growing up in Shanghai, Du Yun recounted, in her contribution to WQXR, that neither of her parents went to college and both were factory workers in China.

When Du Yun studied in junior high school in Shanghai, she collected cassette tapes from singer Faye Wong, Chen Sheng, Dou Wei, Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson.

She counts Dou Wei and Faye Wong among the Chinese pop musicians who have had the most influence on her musical life.

She credits filmmakers Wong Kar-wai and Quentin Tarantino as some of the major influences on her style.

When she studied in high school, she spent pocket money on CDs that had impactful covers.

Pink Floyd, Cocteau Twins, Björk, Sinead O'Connor, and Kraftwerk entered her world all at once.

She indulged in Krautrock and psychedelic rock.

During her first year of college, British band Portishead released a new album, and Du Yun fell into the world of trip hop.

Her psychedelic style was later used in many of her works, and in 2012, she released her first studio album, Shark in You, which featured a variety of styles, from experimental dance music to cabaret and jazz electronic music.

Director Stan Lai has collaborated with Du Yun twice.

He said her music not only has the background of classical music, but also is multifaceted, influenced by pop and folk music.

From 2014 to 2018, Du Yun was the Artistic Director of the MATA Festival in New York City.

The citation for the prize reads: "Premiered on January 6, 2016, at the Prototype Festival, 3LD Arts and Technology Center, New York City, a bold operatic work that integrates vocal and instrumental elements and a wide range of styles into a harrowing allegory for human trafficking in the modern world. Libretto by Royce Vavrek."

She is the composer of the musical Dim Sum Warriors, based on a graphic novel and bilingual iPad app series about Kung Fu-fighting dumplings by the Singaporean filmmaker, satirist, and cartoonist Colin Goh and Yenyen Woo.

Dim Sum Warriors was made into a Chinese musical which was produced by Stan Lai.

She won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her opera Angel's Bone, with libretto by Royce Vavrek.

Du Yun won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her opera Angel's Bone in 2017, making her the first Asian woman to win this prize in music.

In 2017, she joined the composition faculty at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

She is the Professor of Composition at Peabody.

In 2017, she was also appointed as the distinguished visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

On April 10, 2017, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for her second opera, Angel's Bone.

She was a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow.

Du Yun was named as one of the 38 Great Immigrants by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 2018, and received a 2019 Grammy nomination in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition for her work Air Glow.

The opera's production in Hong Kong in 2018 won the best of the performances of the year by the South China Morning Post.

An avid performer, Du Yun's engagements include the 2018 Lahore Biennial (Pakistan), the 2012 Guangzhou Art Triennial (Guangzhou Opera House, China), the National Academy Museum (USA), the inaugural Shanghai Project (China).

She also leads her band Ok Miss, which exists as both rock band and chamber music ensemble.

In 2020, China's leading record label, Modern Sky, announced its three-year record deal with Du Yun.

Du Yun lives and works from New York City.

She uses her whole name, Du Yun, not Du, for professional and personal uses.

Her works include compositions for solo instruments, electroacoustic music, chamber music, orchestral works, opera, indie pop, punk, theatre, oral tradition music, sound installations, and performance art pieces.

Du's works have been performed internationally in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Guangzhou Opera House, the Salle Pleyel Paris, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Escola de Música do Estado in São Paulo, the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in Germany, and London's Southbank Centre.

She has written for the New York Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the LA Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, as well as solo artists Hilary Hahn and Matt Haimovitz.