Julian Yu

Julian Yu (Julian Jing-Jun Yu, 于京君) -- Chinese composer "I believe that quality and beauty in music come from something deeper than the sound produced...and that it is this inner pattern which gives integrity and individual character to a work." Born in Beijing in 1957, wrote his first composition at age 12. Following formal music study in China, he earned a Composition Fellowship to Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts, where he studied under composers Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen. Notes from his website: Born in Beijing in 1957, Julian Yu studied composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and later joined the teaching staff there. From 1980 to 1982 he studied at the Tokyo College of Music under Joji Yuasa and Schin-ichiro Ikebe. He migrated to Australia in 1985. In 1988 he was selected for a Composition Fellowship at Tanglewood, where he studied under Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen, and was awarded the Koussevitzky Tanglewood Composition Prize for that year. In 2011 he was theme composer at the International Contemporary Music Festival of Suntory Hall, Tokyo. He has written many works for orchestra, instrumental and choral groups, theatre and opera, commissioned by organizations such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the BBC Proms, IRCAM / Ensemble InterContemporain, the City of Munich, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Australia Ensemble, Melbourne International Festival, and Synergy Percussion. His music has also featured in the ISCM World Music Days in Switzerland, Mexico and Luxembourg. Julian Yu's music has won many awards in the USA, Japan, Italy, France, P.R. China, and his adopted Australia. In 1991 and 1994, an international jury unanimously selected his work for the triennial Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize. Established in 1991, this is the highest Australian award for composition.