Chinese-American composer Zhou Tian’s music has been played by the Pittsburgh Symphony (under Daniel Meyer), the Minnesota Orchestra (under Osmo Vänskä), American Composers Orchestra, the St. Cloud Symphony, Symphony in C, Curtis Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony, the Biava Quartet, the Arditti Quartet, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. Zhou is a first-prize winner of the Washington International Competition for Composers, first-prize winner of ASCAP and Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition, a three-time winner of ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Award and recipient of Composition Fellowships from the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Fontainebleau Music Festivals.

Zhou’s compositions have received multiple performances in prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In 2008 the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony performed Zhou’s work in four major cities during the orchestra’s first Asia Tour. Zhou’s CD “Symphonic Suite: The Grand Canal” was recorded by the Guangzhou Symphony and released by China's largest recording label Pacific Audio & Video in 2009. Recently Grammy Award-winning label Cedille Records released Zhou's new work in “The Billy Collins Suite”, a CD devoted to musical settings of poems by the popular U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. The recording was named "CD of the Week" by Chicago Tribune.

Zhou's recent premieres include “First Sight”, commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra under Sarah Hicks, and “Blowing Westward”, premiered by award-winning percussionist Pius Cheung at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.

Born in 1981 in the city of Hangzhou, China, Zhou holds a Bachelor of Music from The Curtis Institute of Music, a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and he is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California. Zhou's private teachers have included Jennifer Higdon, Richard Danielpour, Christopher Rouse, Stephen Hartke, and Donald Crockett (composition); Meng-Chieh Liu and Antoinette Perry (piano).

Zhou served as Composer-in-Residence for Music In the Loft in Chicago for the 2007-08 season. Currently he serves as Composer-in-Residence for The Green Bay Symphony. Zhou’s current projects include a flute sonata commissioned by Jeffrey Khaner, the principle flautist of Philadelphia Orchestra, a violin concertino commissioned by the Curtis Institute and the Markow-Totevy Foundation, and a song cycle to be published by E.C. Schirmer.

Note: Zhou Tian is pronounced: Jo Tyen. Zhou is his family name and Tian is his given name. Please do not use previously dated biographies. 2/2010

You are listening to an excerpt from Zhou's Prism, performed by pianist Yuja Wang. ©Zhou Tian (ASCAP) & The Curtis Institute of Music.

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