Yang SONG 宋杨 was born in Inner Mongolia (China). After completing her bachelor's degree in musicology at Inner Mongolia University, she completed a master's degree in composition theory from 2009 to 2012 at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. After that, she began studying composition at the Central Conservatory of Music at the age of 27 as doctor candidate by Professor Guoping Jia, and finished successfully in 2018. Since 2017 she had been attending Professor Johannes Schöllhorn's concert exam master class at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Germany, and graduated in February 2019. She attended “Cursus de Composition et d’Informatique Musicale 2020/21” in IRCAM Paris, by Thierry De Mey . Now she works as post-doctor at the Central Conservatory of Music, and having doctorate of systematic musicology in Cologne University .

 

“ She is clearly very inventive and technically accomplished. Her music is emotionally expressive, aesthetically refined, and well-organized. She knows how to cooperate with musicians, She is not just giving them instructions. She is always ready to learn from them…Every new piece is a unique sound world in its own right. her works are all amazingly different. These pieces take inspiration from traditional music. But they are not just simple imitations…Although her works all sound very different, they still demonstrate a remarkable unity. First of all, her pieces demonstrate an overriding interest in timbre, in texture…She often manages to create new sounds that really make her music stand out. We, the listeners, really feel lifted up by her sounds. Secondly, there is her constant interest in different simultaneous layers, in ‘multi-music’, so to speak. These extra layers in performance, or in the music itself, add real depth to her works. Thirdly, she succeeds in integrating the electronic sounds quite convincingly with live acoustic sounds. Clearly, electronic sounds are not just playful toys to her. They are powerful tools, which can enrich, even transfigure her materials. Melody plays a subordinate role in her music, but it still spices up her scores and makes them richer.”(Frank Kouwenhoven, 2022)

 

In 2022, her projects' plans got the Neustart Kultur scholarships from Deutscher Musikfond und Deutscher Musikrat. In 2020, her chamber opera „the Envoy“ received the 1st prize of the Zhejiang Conservatory Chamber Opera Composition Competition in China. In 2019, her Ensemble piece „Chant de l'océan“ got the 2nd Prize of the Franz-Josef-Reinl-Stiftung „Reinl-Preis 2019“ in Austria; Orchestra piece „Déjà-vu“, chosen by the 11. Saarbrücker Komponistenwerkstatt won the Théodore-Gouvy-Preis ; In 2018 she was selected for the Gyeonggi Korean Orchestra International Musical Work Contest, and won the international Goethe-Preis of the “Asian Composers Showcase 2018" in South Korea. In 2017 she  was awarded the 3rd prize in the Vareler Composition Prize in Germany. She also received the first place in the 2015 Singapore Ding Yi Music Company's Composition Prize and in the 2014 Voice of China Composition Competition. In 2015, she received a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and a DAAD scholarship in 2018.

 

Her pieces are performed by the Germany Radio Philharmonie (Germany), Ensemble intercontemporain (France), Ensemble Modern (Germany), Arditti Quartet (England), Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart (Germany), Ensemble Rechercher  (Germany),  United instruments of Lucilin Luxemburg, the Trio Estatico (Germany), Kairos-Quartett (Germany), Hand Werk (Germany), ensemble Resilience  (Holland), C Barré Ensemble (France), ensemble hartmann21 (Germany), zone expérimentale (Switzerland), TIMF Ensemble (South Korea), Juilliard School New Ensemble ( U.S.),  Israel Contemporary Players, Ding Yi Ensemble (Singapore), Nieuw Ensemble (Holland)... She has received commissions from the German Radio Philharmonic (Germany), Ensemble intercontemporain (France), IRCAM centre Pompidou (France), Oluzayo Festival (Germany/South Africa), Gyeonggi Korean Orchestra (South Korea), aDevantgarde Festival (Germany), Karl Amadeus Hartmann Foundation (Germany), Tongyeong Music Festival (South Korea), Juilliard School Focus! Festival ( U.S.), Shanghai International Arts Festival (China) and China National Art Foundation. Her pieces were played on Gaudeamus Festival (Holland), Beijing Modern Music Festival (China), Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für neue Musik (Germany),  Seoul International Composition Festival “RE-CREATE” (South Korea)...