Biography
Zhiyi Wang (b.1980) is a multi-award winning composer for contemporary classical and film genres.
Zhiyi’s characteristics of composing reflects all the genres he has touched, with a sophisticated amalgam of Oriental tinctures and Western avant-garde, as well as influenced by classical traditions. He has composed a series of music works in different genres, including contemporary classical, film and TV score, modern ballet, musical, world music and pop music. His works have been performed by leading artists including Yuri Bashmet, Sarah Brightman, Lang Lang, Li-Wei Qin, etc., as well as groups including the China National Symphony Orchestra, China Philharmonic, NCPA Orchestra, The Orchestra of China National Opera House, The Orchestra of Shanghai Opera House, Brno Philharmonic, China Broadcast Symphony Orchestra, Senzoku Gakuen New Philharmonic, Suzhou Symphony Ochestra, Lviv Chamber Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, Moscow Soloists, Sound Ways Ensemble, Ensemble Les Amis, ConTempo Quartet, Baroque Camerata, Lemberg Sinfonietta, Villiers String Quartet and many others throughout Asia, North America and Europe.
As a core member of the music crew in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Zhiyi composed various music programs for the Opening Ceremony. His Fanfare for the Ceremony was performed when Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, and Liu Qi, President of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, entered the stadium to make their opening speeches. His arrangements included four programs: the theme song, You and Me (performed by Sarah Brightman and Liu Huan), the duet song, Dream of the Five Rings, Ritual Music, and Lighting of the Olympic Cauldron. Zhiyi’s immense contribution to the spirit of the Ceremonies has been officially acknowledged by the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. He later transcribed the orchestral version of the Beijing Olympic Theme Song You and Me for the 2012 New Year’s Concert at the China National Centre for the Performing Arts, conducted by Lorin Maazel. Zhiyi is an appointed composer for the Opening Ceremony of 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibitions.
In contemporary domain, Zhiyi has won top prizes from Red Note International Composition Competition, International Alfred Schnittke Composition Competition, Senzoku Gakuen International Composition Competition, Malta International Composition Competition, International Franz Liszt Competition for Composers, International Sergei Slonimsky Composition Competition and International Antonín Dvořák Composition Competition. He was a recipient of the Grawemeyer Fellowship as well as the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Oberlin College. Zhiyi has been Composer-in-Residence at the Shanghai Opera House, the National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan, Sacrarium International Composers’ Forum in Ukraine and the International Contemporary Arts Academy in Romania. He frequently receives commissions from various orchestras, festivals and organizations, and he was commissioned by Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi to create new music for Yuri Bashmet and Moscow Soloists for three consecutive years. Coming up, his piano work Etude for Concert will be performed by Anna Kislitsyna in the Carnegie Hall in June 2022. Zhiyi serves as a faculty at the Virginia Commonwealth University Global Summer Institute of Music.
Regarding film music, Zhiyi worked with most acclaimed film directors in China, including Kaige Chen, Yimou Zhang and Hark Tsui. He composed an original score for the films, But Always and Highway of Love, for which he received the “Discovery of the Year” nomination from the 15th World Soundtrack Awards. In 2017, he garnered the Gold Medal from Global Music Awards for his original film score Dali Holiday. In 2021, his score to The Guiding Star (from My People, My Country) was nominated for "Best Original Score - Short Film" from Hollywood Music In Media Awards. He recently scored for film The Battle at Lake Changjin, which is China's most expensive film ever. The blockbuster has become the second highest-grossing film in 2021 worldwide and the new champion of China's all time box office. Moreover, he composed the original music and theme songs for TV series and documentaries, including Romantic Attachment for documentary The Louvre Meets the Forbidden City, which is included in the textbook of music for nationwide middle schools in China. His score to the documentary series Seal In Time received a nomination for Best Music Award from the 11th China Academy Awards of Documentary film.
In pop music, Zhiyi received two nominations for Best Arranger in the 25th Golden Melody Awards for the album Li Jian Classic Remake Collections. He collaborated with famous singers from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as being actively involved in China’s most popular singer reality shows, I am a Singer, Grammy Salute to China Star, and X-Factor, creating his own version of classic songs.
Born in Suzhou, China, Zhiyi holds BM and MM in music composition from Oberlin College Conservatory and the University of Louisville, where he studied with Randolph Coleman and Marc Satterwhite. Zhiyi is a member of World Soundtrack Academy and The Recording Academy, and he lives in Los Angeles.
news
Upcoming projects and events
Scored for film The Battle at Lake Changjin
The war epic film has become the 2021's second highest-grossing film worldwide.
Scoring for Water Gate Bridge, the sequel to The Battle at Lake Changjin
The sequel will be in cinemas in 2022.
Works
Music composed for various genres
Film and TV Scores
Orchestral
Chamber
Solo
Songs
2008 Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
discography
The Official Album for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
2008, Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee
Videos
Sample clips in different genres
Composer Reel
Music for Screen
Excerpts from film, TV series, Documentary, Short, Music video and Show.
Motherland
Film Score
Main title from the film My People, My Country.
The Theme of The 7th Company
Film Score
The theme is used in the first trailer of the Battle at Lake Changjin.
Elegy for Strings
Contemporary Classical
Lviv chamber orchestra, Conductor Ferdinando Nazzaro,
St. Maria Magdalena's Church, Lviv, Ukraine
Ode to Nature
Song Live Performance (Sung in Chinese and English)
The Opening Ceremony of 2019 International Horticultural Exhibition in Beijing.
Like Water
Song MV
Written and produced by Zhiyi Wang, Performed by Hong Ru
Romantic Attachment
Song MV
Written and produced by Zhiyi Wang, Performed by Shilei Chang
reviews
"Zhiyi's music demonstrates an innate lyricism, and also shows a great deal of craft and skill. Like many composers he seeks to fuse the music of Asian heritage with the techniques and forms of Western classical music, and he does so in a very convincing manner. His Asian background is apparent, but he avoids clichés and the obvious. His music demonstrates a broad emotional range, as well, and he can paint effectively on both large- and small-scale musical canvases."
-Marc Satterwhite, Director of Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition
"The greatest composer of all time in our opera house."
-Guoyong Zhang, Former president of Shanghai Opera House
The Aroma of Exotic
"The Aroma of Exotic is very interesting and can be viewed as a cross-cultural experience by an Occidental experiencing Oriental culture or vice versa. At times I was reminded of the dawn section of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, and I liked this work a lot."
-Geoff Pearce, Music & Vision
Elegy for Strings
"The score is deep and inspired by an exceptional musical talent! "
- Ferdinando Nazzaro, Artistic Director of KLK New Music
Three Overlapping Sounds
"This three-movement piece unfolds varied waves of sentiments by distinct expressions of strings. The first part creates an atmosphere where all four instruments resonate as a group in terms of the dynamic change, the shifting of harmony and the collocation of melodic lines. Though it has a long breath and very delicate sound, a latent tension is possessed within the drive of adagio. The second part reveals an inside throbbing by imitating wings of insects to portrait those subtle affections, which touch our inner feelings in a sentimental way. The third part is relatively contrastive, from a tranquil start to an insanely wild presto, then back to peace ultimately. It reflects certain unpredictable mood that twists without signs. The piece adopts western form and vocabulary, yet conveys implicit oriental flavor."
-Alice Jiang, Music Weekly Journal
"The skills in composition and orchestration are very achieved, and the writing tasteful and touching."
-Gabriel Yared, Academy Award-winning Composer
Three Art Songs
"They sound like an opera!"
-Morton Subotnick, Composer
Drop Me a Line
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