Born in Beijing in 1955, he first studied violin and then composition at the city’s Conservatory (1980–85). He continued his compositional studies with György Ligeti in Hamburg. In 1987 he made his European debut as a composer at the Donaueschingen Music Days with the premiere performance of his String Quartet No. 1 by the Auryn Quartet. In 1992 he received the award of West German Radio’s Young Composers’ Forum for Yün for soprano and 11 instrumentalists (premiered by Ensemble Modern under Peter Eötvös). From 1994, he worked closely with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, for which he wrote three pieces: Warp (1994), Evapora (1996) and Invisible Landscapes (1998). In 1999 the orchestra produced the portrait cd entit-led Invisible Landscapes (in cooperation with Radio Bremen); it was awarded the highest number of points by the ‘Neue Zeitschrift für Musik’. In the same year Xiaoyong Chen wrote the orchestral work Interlaced Landscapes, which was commissioned by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It was performed by the Orquesta Gulbenkian under Muhai Tang on a tour through China and Portugal. The composition Fusion for ensemble was written in 2000 to a commission from the cellist Yo-Yo Ma for his ‘Silk Road’ Project. Two years later, Xi – Fusion III, was given its world premiere as a commission from the Asia-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg.
Xiaoyong Chen belongs to a small group of Chinese composers who have recently aroused great attention on an international scale. He has worked with numerous orchestras and ensembles including the Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden, the kbs Symphony Orchestra Seoul, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, State Philharmonic Orchestra Hamburg, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble 2e2m (Paris), Ensemble ‘work in progress’ from Berlin, Nieuw Ensemble, ‘Silk Road’ Ensemble (New York), the Auryn Quartet, the Arditti Quartet and the Kairos Quartett.
Xiaoyong Chen’s honours include the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Prize in Munich (1993) and the Bach Grant from the City of Hamburg (1995). Guest professorships have constantly taken him to Taiwan, Hong Kong and China since 1997. Since 1987 he has been an instructor at the Asia-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg, where he lives and works as a freelance composer.

Selected works: Violin Concerto (1985), String Quartet No. 1 (1986–87), San Jie, three pieces for Chinese orchestra (1990–91), Yün for soprano and 11 instruments to old Chinese texts (1991), Dyeh…for orchestra (1988–92), Warp for chamber orchestra (1994), Evapora for flute, oboe or clarinet, piano, violin and cello (1996), Invisible Landscapes for zheng, percussion, piano and instrumental ensemble (1998), String Quartet No. 2 (1998), Interlaced Landscapes for orchestra (1999), Fusion for instrumental ensemble (2000), Xi – Fusion III for zheng, voice, sheng and temple bowls to a text by Bai Pu (2002), Yang Shen for soprano, three Chinese instruments and instrumental ensemble (2002), Speechlessness, Clearness and Ease for instrumental ensemble (2004).

String Quartet No. 2
For years I have been attempting to move the centre of gravity of my interests as a composer from questions of the organisation of material to aspects of sound. This is directly related to my origins.
The genesis and the life of a single sound, which spreads through silence, its harmonic spectrum, which develops gradually only to return to silence – all that is of importance in the music of Eastern Asia, and plays an increasingly important role in my music. The European culture usually adopts the opposite attitude, since these phenomena are, on the whole, perceived simply as the physical basis of music. For me, individual sounds are not neutral elements to be used as desired, but as if living creatures, who have their own dynamics and inspire the composer’s reactions.
In my string quartet, the two meditative movements provide a framework for two very fast ones. Both pairs of movements are clearly different, in spite of adopting related principles. In the first movement the note E constitutes the centre. It changes its position among the instruments of the quartet, and is always being surrounded by other neighbouring notes, also microtonal ones.
The fast movements are contrasted – one moves almost mechanically, while the second one is explosive. The declamatory melodics and rhythm originating from the Chinese language may bring to mind the Beijing Opera. The fourth movement begins with the note G, which is very slowly overlaid by other notes, in prime and octave. The sound is later divided. Here it is the interval – perfect fifth, which is the centre. The ‘empty’ fifth is sometimes filled.
The dense language of the quartet creates a taut arch between complete silence and violence, as well as between the European and Chinese inspirations.

Xiaoyong Chen