Chen Tao is a Visiting Professor of Chinese Music at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. He is an internationally acclaimed Chinese flutist, music educator, composer, and of Chinese orchestra; founder and director of Melody of Dragon, Inc., and of Melody of Dragon & the Youth; artistic director and conductor of the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York and conductor of New Jersey Buddha’s Light Youth Chinese Orchestra; director of New York Guqin Association; and executive chairman of the New York Chinese Music Instruments International Competition since 2015. He is also a 27th-generation musician of Zhi-Hua Buddhism music. On the faculty of Bard’s US-China Music Institute, Chen Tao teaches dizi and directs the Conservatory’s Chinese Ensemble. Read more here.

Qu Xiaosong is one of the most avant-garde of the New Wave composers. During the Cultural Revolution, Qu was sent to the mountainous countryside as a farmer for four years. He taught himself to play the violin in 1972, and a year later joined the Guiyang Beijing Opera Troupe as a violist. When the Central Conservatory reopened in 1978, Qu, along with Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Tan Dun and Chen Qigang, was accepted in the composition class. While at the Conservatory, Qu studied with Du Mingxin and graduated in 1983. In 1989, at the invitation of Columbia University’s Center for US-China Arts Exchange, Qu moved to New York, where his international fame grew.

Early works, such as Mong Dong, were experiments with sound. Qu has an affinity for nature, intent on returning the concept of Chinese music to its most pristine form. His stage work, Life on a String (Ming ruo qinxian, 1998), is sung in the Sichuan dialect, because Qu appreciates the dialect’s latent musicality, similar to his native Guizhou.

His Fi [Silence] series explores the minutest sonic shades. Ji No. 4 ‘Kou’ (2001) was scored for a septet, but the volume of any performance of this work is intentionally low. Qu is a very theatrical composer, sometimes performing as vocalist and conductor himself in Europe, America and Asia.

The world-renowned artist and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun, has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today’s most prestigious honors including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and most recently Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television. Most recently, Tan Dun was named as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun will further demonstrate music’s extraordinary ability to transform lives and guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of understanding music’s connection to history, art, culture, and society. Read more here.