Dong, Kui
Dong, Kui
Dong, Kui, innovative Chinese composer; b. Beijing, Feb. 14,1967. She began piano lessons at the age of 4 with her mother, a coloratura soprano with the Chamber Orch. of the Central Philharmonic Soc. in Beijing. She studied composition and theory with Mingxin Du and Zuqing Wu at the Central Cons, of Music in Beijing (B.A., 1987; M.A., 1989); in 1991 she entered the doctoral program in composition and computer music composition at Stanford Univ., where her principal mentors were John Chowning, Chris Chafe, Leland Smith, and Wayne Peterson. Her compositions have won numerous awards, including the 1st prize National Music Award for Music and Dance in Beijing (1990), 1st prize in Boston’s Alea III International Competition (1994), ASCAP (1995), Meet the Composer (1997–98), and The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust (1999–2000); in 1995 she held the Gerald Oshita Stipend for Composers in the Artists in Residence Program at the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, Calif. In 1995 she received a Young Composers Award. Her music video, The Horizon (1993), was funded by a research grant from the Asia-Pacific National Fund. Dong is currently an asst. prof, at Dartmouth Coll.
Works
Piano Suite (Beijing, Sept. 4,1984); Sigui for Sanxian, Bamboo Flute, and Chinese Percussion (Beijing, Sept. 4, 1984); Chen for Piano Duet (1986); Imperial Concubine Yang for Orch. (1988–89; Beijing, Feb. 9,1989); Zhang Jing Tang for Orch. (Beijing, Dec. 14, 1989); Four Image Songs (1990); Eclipse I, computer- generated tape music installation (1992; San Jose, Calif., Nov. 13, 1993); Prelude, Fugue, and Postlude for Piano (Stanford, Calif., Dec. 14,1992); The Horizon, music video (1993); The Blue Melody for Violin, Cello, Flute, Clarinet, and Piano (Stanford, Calif., May 12, 1993); Invisible Scenes I for String Orch. (Windsor, Canada, Nov. 4, 1994); Flying Apples, computer algo-rhythmic composition for quadraphonic tape (Stanford, Calif., July 12, 1994); Cycle of Light for 12 Musicians (1995); Clarinet Concert (1995–96).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire