Zhou Long is internationally recognized for creating a unique body of music that brings together the aesthetic concepts and musical elements of East and West. Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for his first opera, Madame White Snake, Dr. Zhou also received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the 2012-2013 Elise Stoeger Prize from Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. He has been two-time recipient of commissions from the Koussevitzky, Fromm Music Foundations, Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, and the New York State Council on the Arts. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2015, Zhou Long and Chen Yi both were nominated the 58th Grammy Award. 

Born on July 8, 1953 in Beijing. Zhou Long enrolled in the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1977. Following graduation in 1983, he was appointed composer-in-residence with the China Broadcasting Symphony. He travelled to the United States in 1985 under a fellowship to attend Columbia University, where he studied with Chou Wen-Chung, Davidovsky and Edwards, receiving a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1993. Dr. Zhou is currently Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. 

Recently, he has completed Tsingtao Overture, which awarded China National Arts Fund; Beijing Rhyme - A Symphonic Suite, commissioned by the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, a quartet co-commissioned by the Wigmore Hall and Lincoln Center, and his first piano concerto Postures co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and Singapore Symphony. In 2013, Zhou Long has composed a whole evening symphonic epic 'Nine Odes' on poems by Qu Yaun for four solo vocalists and orchestra, commissioned by the Beijing Music Festival. Zhou’s music of all genres has been widely performed and recorded, and published by the Oxford University Press and the Shanghai Music Publishing House. 

Su Wei is a senior lecturer in the Yale University Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. In 2019, he was the recipient of the Richard Brodhead'68 Prize for Teaching Excellence at Yale. Also a writer and critic, his work has been widely published in China. He is the author of three novels: Dukou, you yi ge zaochen (“Another Morning at the Ferry,” 1982, Guangdong), Mi gu (“Lost Valley,” 1999, Taiwan; 2006, Beijing), and Mi diao (“Key of E,” included in the “Best Chinese Novels of the Year, 2004,” 2007, Guangdong); a collection of short stories, Yuan xing ren (“Sojourners,” 1987); a collection of academic essays, Xi yang jing yu (“Western Mirror, ” 1988, Zhejiang); and two collections of memoirs, Du zi mian dui (“Facing Myself,” 2003, Shanghai)，Zhan zai Yelu de jiangtai shang (“At the Podium at Yale,” 2006, Taipei) Zou JinYelu（“Entering Yale, 2009, Beijing).

Described by the New York Times as “deftly scored work that is veering from lustrous Impressionist washes to folksy Ivesian polytonal clashes,” the music of Shaosheng Li is representative of the younger generation of Chinese composers. His works cover various genres, including symphony, chamber music, and opera, etc. He has received numerous awards, including the China Golden Bell Award, the “Times Symphony” from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, the only commission prize at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, and the first prize in song collection from the Ministry of Education and the General Administration of Sport, and so forth. He was also one of Forbes China 100 outstanding overseas returnees in 2022.

Shaosheng Li’s music exhibits a distinctive personal style, blending both Eastern and Western musical languages with a strong artistic appeal. His works have been performed around the world, including the Carnegie Chinese Music Festival, the New York Chinese Contemporary Music Festival, the Australia Chinese Music Festival, the Iceland Modern Music Festival, the Thailand International Composition Music Festival, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Shenzhen International Music Festival, Beijing Fringe Festival, the Tsingtao International Music Festival. 

He studied composition at the Central Conservatory of Music, Juilliard School, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is the first composer from Central Conservatory to be admitted to Juilliard School.