Composer Zhang Zheng is a professor and dean of the School of Music Education in China, as well as a member of the First Beijing Education Commission and the Core Curriculum Guidance Group for Music Education in Art Professional Degrees. He was the winner of the inaugural China Television Drama Annual Gala’s “Behind-the-Scenes (Composer)” award and his pieces have been supported by the National Arts Fund’s creative grant program on multiple occasions, with “Qingfeng Yu” winning the Excellence Award for Works on Clean Culture in Beijing’s Higher Education Institutions. He composed the official promotional video for the G20 Summit, titled “Hangzhou”; the theme song for the major historical drama series “The Great Battle” produced by the Central Radio and Television Station; and the song “Centimeter Heart” for the centennial of the founding of the troupe.

Luk Wai Chun holds a doctorate of music in composition from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a visiting scholar at the University of South Florida, he studied jazz and conducted research on Latin American music, with fieldwork in Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. He has collaborated with leading ensembles across Asia, Europe, and North America. His Chinese orchestral work Eager to Fly received the Best Young Composer’s Serious Composition Award at the 22nd CASH Golden Sail Music Awards. His chamber works Autumn Yearning on the Steppe (2024) and Tan-Tiao Rock (2021) won gold prizes at the Dunhuang Awards. His music has been presented at the International Computer Music Conference and the International Rostrum of Composers.

Wang Danhong holds a doctorate in composition from the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM), where she now serves as a professor of composition. She is recognized as one of the most dynamic young composers in contemporary China, having received prestigious awards including the Wenhua Award, the Gold Prize for Young Composers at the Chinese Music Forum, and Best Original Work at the CCTV National Chinese Instrumental Music Competition.

In 2021, Wang was selected for China’s National High-Level Talent Support Program as a “Top Young Talent.” Her works have been featured in major cultural projects such as Symphony of the Times and Centenary – 100 Works, and she has composed for significant national events including the 75th Anniversary of the PRC, and the 2024 China International Confucius Culture Festival.

Wang’s music is known for its emotional richness, lyrical melodies, and expansive style. She composes across genres, including Chinese traditional orchestral music, symphonic works, ballet, and film scores. Major compositions include Forever Shandan, Ode to the Sun, and Impressions of Shanxi for Chinese orchestra; The Lighthouse and The Yangtze South for symphony orchestra; the symphonic choral work A Vision of Jing-Jin-Ji; and the ballet Like Flowers.

Composer Huang Ruo has been lauded by The New York Times for having “a distinctive style.” His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, experimental, noise, natural and processed sound, rock, and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls “Dimensionalism.” Huang Ruo’s diverse compositional works span from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater, and dance, to cross-genre, sound installation, architectural installation, multi-media, experimental improvisation, folk rock, and film. His music has been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Asko/Schoenberg, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta. He has written 8 operas including M. BUTTERFLY, PARADISE INTERRUPTED, and AN AMERICAN SOLDIER, which was named one of the best classical music events in 2018 by The New York Times.  He served as the first composer-in-residence for Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, China in 1976 - the year the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s when China was opening its gate to the Western world, his education expanded from Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, and Lutoslawski, to include the Beatles, rock and roll, heavy metal, and jazz. He earned a BM degree from the Oberlin College, and MM and DMA degrees from the Juilliard School. Huang Ruo is a composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music.  Huang Ruo’s music is published by Ricordi. (www.huangruo.com)

David Henry Hwang’s stage works includes the plays M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, Chinglish, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, a Grammy Award winner who has been twice nominated, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Opera News called him America’s most-produced living opera librettist. He co-wrote the Gold Record “Solo” with the late pop icon Prince and was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair from 2015-2019. Hwang is currently creating Empress, a TV series for Netflix; the live-action musical feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios; and a movie to star actress Gemma Chan. Hwang serves as Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts and sits on the Board of the American Theatre Wing, where he recently completed his term as Chair. His newest work, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori, premiered at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre, where it won six Ovation Awards. Its subsequent run at the Public Theatre in NYC received a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

In 2016, The David Henry Hwang Society was founded by William C. Boles (Rollins College), Martha Johnson (University of Minnesota), and Esther Kim Lee (University of Maryland). The DHH Society is devoted to the scholarly examination of plays by David Henry Hwang.