The new millennium marks an exciting time for Bright Sheng: he had two premieres in the first week of the millennium -- an orchestral work in memory of the Rape of Nanking: Nanking! Nanking!, commissioned and premiered on the 2nd of January by the Northern German Radio Symphony in Hamburg, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach; and on the 6th of January his Red Silk Dance, a piano concerto commissioned by the Boston Symphony, received its premiere with Emanuel Ax as the soloist and Robert Spano as the conductor. In May and June, Spoleto USA presented a new production (eight performances) of his opera Silver River with a libretto by David Henry Hwang, which was subsequently performed in Philadelphia and Singapore, and will be presented by the Lincoln Center Festival in July 2002. During the 2000-2001 season, he received the New York Premiere of Red Silk Dance by Ax, Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic; Flute Moon by Gerard Schwarz and New York Chamber Symphony; China Dreams by Robert Spano and St. Louis Symphony; productions of Silver River in Philadelphia and Singapore; served as Co-Artistic Director of the Seattle Symphony's East Meets West festival; appeared as pianist for his Four Movements for Piano Trio with Cho Liang Lin and Gary Hoffman, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; and he was Distinguished Guest Composer for the Winnipeg Symphony in Canada, where three of his large orchestral pieces and several chamber works, along with Silver River, were presented within one week. In March 2001 he conducted the China National Symphony Orchestra in a concert of his symphonic music in Beijing.

2001-2002 has again been an exciting year, bringing Bright Sheng's first appearance as solo pianist with Hong Kong Philharmonic to perform his Red Silk Dance on a concert entirely devoted to his music; guest conducting the San Francisco Ballet at Tanglewood Music Center (where he has been named the director of Festival of Contemporary Music); and Asian Youth Orchestra on a tour through six countries in Asia, to name just a few. As well, his music was featured by the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the National Symphony, among others.

He is currently working on two commissions: a full length opera based on the story of Madame Mao, and a quadruple concerto for the New York Philharmonic celebrating the twentieth debut anniversary of Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, who will also appear as two of the soloists. Both works will be premiered in 2003.

Bright Sheng has collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Neeme Järvi, Arthur Fagen, Robert Spano, Hugh Wolff, Bramwell Tovey, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, Emanuel Ax, Cho-Liang Lin, to name just a few. His music has been widely performed in the United States, Europe and in Asia, and he has worked with such prestigious organizations as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Association of Cincinnati, Prince Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Minneapolis Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and symphony orchestras in Seattle, Houston, Baltimore, Detroit, Milwaukee; in Canada with symphonies in Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg; in Europe with NDR in Hamburg, Sinfonica Dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Moscow Philharmonic, Warsaw Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, National Symphony of Spain; in Asia with Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, and the National Symphony of Taiwan, among others. He has also been presented by Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, summer festivals at Tanglewood, Aspen, Santa Fe, Spoleto USA (SC), La Jolla (CA), Seattle, Grant Park (IL), Interlochen (MI), Bravo! Festival (CO), Cheltenham International Music Festival in Great Britain, and the Hong Kong Arts Festival, among others.

Besides prizes received in China and Europe, in the United States he has received prizes from the National Endowment for the Arts (three fellowships), American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1984 and 2001), Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Naumburg Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Koussevitzky Foundation, Copland Foundation, Kennedy Center, and Tanglewood Music Center. Last year, he was the recipient of the Michigan Arts Award and a Rachham fellowship from the University of Michigan.

Other appointments include serving as Artist-in-Residence with Washington Performing Arts Society from 2001-2003, Co-Artistic Director of Pacific Music Festival with Seattle Symphony 2001, Artistic Director of The Silk Road Festival 2003 in Queens, New York City, and as Composer-in-Residence of the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1982-92, for whom he wrote The Song of Majnun, an one-act opera in collaboration with librettist Andrew Porter. It subsequently received five other productions nationwide and was recorded by the Houston Grand Opera on Delos. He was Composer-in-Residence with the Seattle Symphony from 1992-95. He was the artistic director of the San Francisco Symphony's "Wet Ink 93" Festival. He has also been Composer-in-Residence at Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Chamber Music Summerfest and Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, among others.

Mr. Sheng's music is exclusively published by G. Schirmer Inc. in New York City. His discography includes recordings on the Sony Classical, Delos, Koch International, and New World labels. In 1999 he signed a three-CD contract with Grammofon AB BIS, Sweden.

Bright Sheng, born in December 1955 in Shanghai, China, started piano study with his mother at the age of four. During the "Cultural Revolution" he worked as a pianist and percussionist in a folk music and dance troupe in Qinghai Province for seven years near the Tibetan border, where he also studied and collected folk music. In 1978, after the "Cultural Revolution" when universities reopened, he was one of the first students accepted by Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he earned his undergraduate degree in music composition.

Bright Sheng moved to New York in 1982 and attended Queens College, CUNY (MA), and Columbia University (DMA). Among his important teachers were Leonard Bernstein (composition and conducting), George Perle, Hugo Weisgall, Chou Wen-Chung, and Jack Beeson.

Active also as a conductor and pianist, he has performed in many of the world's most important music centers, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Kennedy Center. He has had guest conducting appearances with San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, orchestras in Philadelphia, California, Maine, Toronto, Milwaukee, Kentucky, and festivals of Lincoln Center, Spoleto, Santa Fe, La Jolla, among others. Mr. Sheng is a Baldwin Pianist-Artist.