Composer
Biography
Zhiyi Wang (b.1980) is a multi-award-winning composer for contemporary classical and film genres.
Wang's composing characteristics reflect all the genres he has touched, with a sophisticated amalgam of Oriental tinctures, Western avant-garde, and classical traditions. He has written various music works in different genres, from contemporary classical, film and TV scores, modern ballet, and musicals to 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 Orchestra, 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, Wang 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. The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee has officially acknowledged Wang's immense contribution to the spirit of the Ceremonies. 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, which Lorin Maazel conducted. Wang was also an appointed composer for the 2019 Beijing International Horticultural Exhibitions Opening Ceremony.
In the contemporary domain, Wang 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 the recipient of the Grawemeyer Fellowship and 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. Starting in 2019, the Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi commissioned him to create new music for Yuri Bashmet and Moscow Soloists for every year's opening concert. Anna Kislitsyna performed his piano work, Etude for Concert, in Carnegie Hall in June 2022.
Regarding film music, Wang worked with the 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 a nomination from the 15th World Soundtrack Awards. In 2017, he garnered the Gold Medal from the Global Music Awards for his original film score, Dali Holiday. In 2021, his score to The Guiding Star (segment from My People, My Country) was nominated for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards. His score for The Battle at Lake Changjin received the Outstanding Music Award from the 19th Huabiao Film Awards and the Best Original Music nomination from the 35th Golden Rooster Awards. The film became 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 the documentary The Louvre Meets the Forbidden City, which is included in the music textbook for nationwide middle schools in China. His score for the documentary series Seal in Time received a nomination for Best Music Award from the 11th China Academy Awards for Documentary Film.
In pop music, Wang 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. He was involved in China's most popular singing reality shows, including I Am a Singer, Grammy Salute to China Star, and X-Factor, creating his version of classic songs.
Originally from China, Wang 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. Both institutions honored him with an Alumni Award. Wang is a member of The Recording Academy and World Soundtrack Academy, and he serves a jury at LIT Talent Awards and Wave Music Committee at Tencent. He lives in Los Angeles.
news
Upcoming projects and events
Outstanding Music Award from the 19th Huabiao Film Awards
Wang received the Outstanding Music Award for The Battle at Lake Changjin from the 19th Huabiao Film Awards. Huabiao is the highest honor in China's film industry.
Alumni Award
Wang is the honoree of the 2023 Alumni Award from the University of Louisville.
Producing a Pop album for singer Hong Ru
The pop album containing all the songs written and produced by Zhiyi aims for release in 2024.
Works
Music composed for various genres
Film and TV Scores
for a detailed list of works, please visit IMDb
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 2018
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 used in the first trailer of the Battle at Lake Changjin
Trinity Dance
Contemporary Classical
Yuri Bashmet, Andrey Usov, Elizaveta Solonchenko and Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra
Elegy for Strings
Contemporary Classical
Lviv chamber orchestra, Conductor Ferdinando Nazzaro
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
© 2023 Zhiyi Wang, All Rights Reserved.