Gao Ping

In this Chinese name, the family name is Gao.

Gao Ping (高平; born Chengdu, 1970) is a Chinese composer and professor of composition at Chinese University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen School of Music. He has also taught composition at the Conservatory of Music at Capital Normal University in Beijing, the University of Canterbury, New Zealand School of Music (Wellington), and University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Gao gained his D.Mus in composition from the University of Cincinnati University.^[1] He is professor in composition at the Conservatory of Music at Capital Normal University in Beijing.^[2] He also holds a guest professorship at the China Conservatory. From 2005 he taught composition at the School of Music at Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand.^[1] He is also a research associate in the Department of Music at Waikato University.^[3] His 1988 China Record Company album Jazz in China was one of the first domestic jazz-classical albums released in China.^[4]

Born in Sichuan province, he grew up as a young pianist at the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, Gao Ping was affected by China’s concurrent transformation from a collective to a market economy. This transitional phase between old and new and the productive cultural clash between East and West left traces, that would later be evident in his music. The Beijing-based musicologist and professor Li Xi’an has referred to Gao Ping as a leading member of the “sixth generation” of Chinese composers. Gao Ping’s works have won wide acclaim throughout the world. His last chamber music release on Naxos was described by a German critic as “music which wants to be heard with ears of a child, full of wonder and amazement…deep and vulnerable.” In his recent works, Gao returns more fully to China as a creative theme. Works such as Piano Quintet “Mei Lan Zhu Ju” (2009) and The Four Not-Alike for multi-function pianist and Chinese instruments (2012) reflect the appeal of his fusing of Western and Eastern idioms, as well as the expanding interest in his compositions dealing with China and its multiple pasts.

Honours and awards

In 2010 Gao was awarded the Composers Association of New Zealand Trust Fund award.^[5]

Selected works

• Distant Voices (1999) - for piano
• Shuo Shu Ren or The Storyteller (2001) - for sextet
• Sonata No 2 for cello and piano (2001)
• Two Soviet Love Songs for Vocalising Pianist (2003)
• "The Mountain" for orchestra (2005)
• Piano Concerto No.1 (2007)
• Wild Cherry Tree --symphonic songs for soloists and orchestra(2012-2017)
• ‘’Four Not-alike‘’ for multi-function pianist and Chamber Orchestra (2012)
• Sonata for Piano (2015)
• Piano Concerto No.2 "Evocation of Spirits (2016)
• prayer Songs for string quartet (2019)
• Searching for the Mountain for piano trio (2021)

References

1. Dando, Ian (2005). "Gao Ping: telling stories". Canzona. 26 (47): 58–62.
2. "Ping Gao- Bio, Albums, Pictures – Naxos Classical Music". naxos.com. Retrieved 2016-03-24.
3. "Gao Ping - Arts and Social Sciences, University of Waikato". Waikato University. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
4. Dennis Rea - Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China 059539048X... 2006 - Page 30 "The first noteworthy statement from China's new jazz generation was the 1988 China Record Company release Jazz in China by pianist and composer Gao Ping, ."
5. "SOUNZ Gao Ping". www.sounz.org.nz. Retrieved 2021-07-09.