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 ancient and folk Chinese music; Western avant-garde; experimental, natural, and processed sound; rock; and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls “dimensionalism.” Huang’s diverse compositional works span from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater, and dance to cross-genre, sound installation, architectural installation, multimedia, 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|Schöenberg, Ensemble Modern, and London Sinfonietta. He has composed eight operas, including M. Butterfly, Paradise Interrupted, and An American Soldier—the premiere of which was named one of the best classical music events in 2018 by The New York Times. Additionally, he served as the first composer-in-residence for Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Huang 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 Lutosławski to include The Beatles, rock and roll, heavy metal, and jazz. He earned a BM from Oberlin College, and an MM and DMA from the Juilliard School. Huang is a composition faculty member at the Mannes School of Music, and his music is published by Ricordi. Visit huangruo.com for more.

David Henry Hwang’s stage works include 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 and Tim Rice’s Aida (coauthor), 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 and two-time nominee, and a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. Opera News called him “America’s most-produced living opera librettist.”

Hwang cowrote the gold record Solo with the late pop icon Prince and was a writer and consulting producer for the Golden Globe–winning television series The Affair from 2015–19. He is currently creating Empress, a series for Netflix; the live-action musical feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios; and a film that will 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 and won six Ovation Awards. Its subsequent run at the Public Theatre in New York City received a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album and was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in drama.