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Zhuosheng Jin

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With his music described as “powerful” and “haunting” (The New York Times), Zhuosheng Jin, born in 1991, Ningbo, China, is a composer, pianist, and writer. Jin’s music spans on a variety of instrumentations and mediums, including orchestra, chamber, solo, and electronic. Influenced by filmmakers such as Theo Angelopoulos and Andrei Tarkovsky, Jin's composition emphasises relationships between literature, especially poetry, and sonic texture. In his music, the sound is always driven by its literary implications. There are particular topics setting his composition up that he often emphasises in his music writings, including the destined loneliness of beings, identities, homesickness, politics, love, and so on.

The awards he has won include 2020 Matan Givol Composers Competition (1st prize), 2020 Salvatore Martirano Award (1st prize), 2020 New Generation Composition Competition (3rd prize), 2019 Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (3rd prize), 2019 John Rea Award (exclusive winner), 2017-18 Société de concerts de Montréal Emerging Composers Competition (winner), and 2017 TURNmusic Collegiate Composition Prize (exclusive winner). He has also received honourable mentions in I/CREATION Composition Competition (2021 and 2018), 2019 Lake George Composition Competition,  2018-19 Breaking Music Composition Contest, and 2018 Giovannini Composition Competition. His scores are published by Babel Scores,
 
Jin's music has been programmed worldwide by Festival Archipel, Impuls Academy, Composit New Music Festival, Delian New Music Festival, outHear New Music Week, CEME Festival, ARCO Université, June in Buffalo New Music Festival, and Beijing Modern Music Festival, etc. He has written for the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, Klangforum Wien (soloists), Ensemble MusikFabrik (soloists), Meitar Ensemble, Ensemble Itinéraire (soloists), Les Métaboles, Ensemble Multilatérale (soloists), Quatuor Béla, Ensemble Mdi, Syntax Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Mise-en, Trio Roadrunner, and Studio TimeArt, etc, as well as soloists Marco Blaauw (trumpet), Christine Chapman (horn), Kimihiro Yasaka (piano), Sylvain Devaux (oboe), Michel Marang (clarinet), Cheng-Yu Wu (flute), Daniel Murray (guitar), Wai Nok Hui (percussion), Jie Qi (pipa), and Yiyang Zhao (cello), et al. He has worked with conductors including Pierre-André Valade, Jean-Philippe Wurtz, Guillaume Bourgogne, Kanako Abe, Pasquale Corrado, Yongyan Hu, Daye Lin, Yang Jiao and Brian Liao etc. He has upcoming activities with Ensemble InterContemporain (soloists), AsianArt Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble (soloists), and Illinois Modern Ensemble, etc.
 
Having begun to study piano at the age of seven, and then composition at thirteen, Jin holds degrees from Oberlin College (BM ‘15) and Boston University (MM ‘17) and is currently a DMus. fellow at McGill University with Philippe Leroux. He has also studied with Joshua Fineberg, Josh Levine, Alex Mincek, and Xiaogang Ye (composition), Shuxing Zheng, Robert Shannon, Webb Wiggins, and David Breitman (keyboard), Davide Ianni (electronic music), and Christoph Neidhöfer (music theory), among others. Jin also followed private lessons and master-classes with Helmut Lachenmann, Johannes Schöllhorn​, Beat Furrer, Philippe Manoury, Pierluigi Billone, Stefano Gervasoni, and Alberto Posadas, et al.

Jin has also worked as an author, director, and curator. Projects include “At the Last Day” (director, screenwriter, and leading actor; short drama, 2009 made in Beijing), “Funeral of Adam” (director, screenwriter, and leading actor; film, 2012 made in Xi'an), “Eyes and Mind” (curator and sound director; art exhibition, 2015 in Shenzhen Art Academy), and “HOME” (sound artist, installation, 2017 made in Boston).
 
In addition to being a doctoral student, Jin also works as a lecturer at McGill University and has previously taught at McGill and Boston University as a teaching assistant. He has also been well-received as a guest lecturer at several other universities, such as the University of California Irvine, La Plata National University, and Zhejiang University, among others.
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Ordered by year. Most recent works appears first

Chamber Group ( 2 - 4 instruments )

Playground saxophone(s), viola, piano (2024)
La mer dans ses yeux two saxophonists (2023)
Neon clarinet (B flat, Bass), violin, cello, piano (2022)
Kylin acoustic guitar, violin, viola, cello (2022)
Flower in Three Colours for four musicians (2021)
Empty Harbour, Reddish Sea two pianos (2021)
Dust not dust trio (2020)
Not here... not there... somewhereI... II duo (2020)
Apple portrait duo (2020)
Not here... not there... somewhere... duo (2019)
Voyage trio (2019)
Immobilised Motions string quartet 2 (2018)
The Last Question Will Last Forever duo (2018)
...and I placed my arm around your shoulder string quartet 1 (2016)

Chamber Ensemble (5 - 9 instruments)

Lady Lin flute solo and six musicians (2024)
Looks Like Jackfruit for nine musicians (2022)
Tree portrait brass quintet (2020)
June Story three instrumentalists and three voices (2019)
Into the Fall (October Story) six musicians (2018)
April Story six musicians (2016)

Solo Instrument

(by)pass for one percussionist (2024)
Pale Flower VIII acoustic guitar solo (2023)
Pale Flower VII cello solo (2022)
Pale Flower IV violin solo (2021)
Pale Flower IVb viola solo (2021)
Pale Flower V accordion solo (2021)
Three Images Inspired from Shuntarō Tanikawa piano solo (2019)
Pale Flower VI oboe solo (2019)
Pale Flower III flute sol (2019)
(in)somnia cello solo (2015)

Solo Voice and Accompaniment

Five Songs to Ni 给周旎的五首歌 (2023)
12 Haikus tenor, piano (2023)

Concerto

Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra orchestra, marimba solo (2022)

Voices and Instruments

A Piece of Watermelon six musicians, female voice (2019)

Mixed Ensemble

June Story three instrumentalists and three voices (2019)

Orchestral Music

At the End of Snow Line orchestra (2018)

String Quartet

Immobilised Motions string quartet 2 (2018)
...and I placed my arm around your shoulder string quartet 1 (2016)

Ensemble (10 - 19 instruments)

First Beam Last Light large ensemble (2018)
(by)pass for one percussionist (2024)
(in)somnia cello solo (2015)
...and I placed my arm around your shoulder string quartet 1 (2016)
12 Haikus tenor, piano (2023)
A Piece of Watermelon six musicians, female voice (2019)
Apple portrait duo (2020)
April Story six musicians (2016)
At the End of Snow Line orchestra (2018)
Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra orchestra, marimba solo (2022)
Dust not dust trio (2020)
Empty Harbour, Reddish Sea two pianos (2021)
First Beam Last Light large ensemble (2018)
Five Songs to Ni 给周旎的五首歌 (2023)
Flower in Three Colours for four musicians (2021)
Immobilised Motions string quartet 2 (2018)
Into the Fall (October Story) six musicians (2018)
June Story three instrumentalists and three voices (2019)
Kylin acoustic guitar, violin, viola, cello (2022)
La mer dans ses yeux two saxophonists (2023)
Lady Lin flute solo and six musicians (2024)
Looks Like Jackfruit for nine musicians (2022)
Neon clarinet (B flat, Bass), violin, cello, piano (2022)
Not here... not there... somewhere... duo (2019)
Not here... not there... somewhereI... II duo (2020)
Pale Flower III flute sol (2019)
Pale Flower IV violin solo (2021)
Pale Flower IVb viola solo (2021)
Pale Flower V accordion solo (2021)
Pale Flower VI oboe solo (2019)
Pale Flower VII cello solo (2022)
Pale Flower VIII acoustic guitar solo (2023)
Playground saxophone(s), viola, piano (2024)
The Last Question Will Last Forever duo (2018)
Three Images Inspired from Shuntarō Tanikawa piano solo (2019)
Tree portrait brass quintet (2020)
Voyage trio (2019)