Tan Dun unites Chinese shamanistic traditions with the western avant-garde, reaching audiences through venues from the Concertgebouw, Avery Fisher Hall and Suntory Hall, to the Guggenheim Museum and La MaMa ETC. This year, Tan will be the featured composer at the Ultima Festival (Oslo), the Festival d'Automne (Paris), the BBC Proms (London), and the Helsinki Biennale which hosts the world premiere of his cello concerto Intercourse of Fire and Water: Yi. His works have been selected for major festivals around the world and have been broadcast often by National Public Radio, the BBC and Berlin Radio. In 1994, the recording of his orchestra music On Taoism (on Koch-Schwann) was selected by BBC Magazine as one of the best CD's of the year.

Tan Dun was born in 1957 in Si Mao village in central Hunan, China and spent his early childhood with his grandmother, growing up amidst the ancient culture of a rural Chinese village. After planting rice for two years during the Cultural Revolution, and then working as a fiddle player and arranger for a provincial Beijing Opera troupe, Tan was selected for the Central Conservatory of Beijing where he spent eight years. He came to New York City in 1986 to take up a fellowship at Columbia University, and completed the doctoral program in composition, studying with Chou, Davidovsky and Edwards. His music is published by G. Schirmer.

Music excerpt:

Circle, with four Trios, Conductor and Audience
from "Snow in June" CRI CD 655, (c) & (p) 1993 Composers Recordings, Inc.