- “every moment is vividly etched, drenched in instrumental color [...] the flow of events is so rapid and so variegated that nothing settles into the groove of the familiar.”
— Alex Ross, The New Yorker - “Wang’s music provides poetic and deeply personal commentary on the whole of modern civilization, meditating with equal gravitas on Tiananmen Square and Tinder. The results are in turns cheeky and devastating, and the sheer sound of it is utterly her own.”
— Patrick Castillo, WQXR - “evoke the delicate colors and harmonies of Chinese folk music. As the piece progressed, I especially liked the way melodic lines were played in block chords of thick, fuzzy, wonderfully diffuse sonorities.”
— Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times - “unmistakable sense of rhythmic freedom. This was a fanfare of joy and exuberance”
— Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune - “evocations and thoroughly contemporary field recordings, fashioned with wide-open ears and penetrating wit.”
— Steve Smith, The New Yorker - “whimsical, freewheeling... it was one of the finest works of new music I’ve heard in a while...”
— Joe Cadagin, San Francisco Classical Voice
-
every moment is vividly etched, drenched in instrumental color [...] the flow of events is so rapid and so variegated that nothing settles into the groove of the familiar.
-
Wang’s music provides poetic and deeply personal commentary on the whole of modern civilization, meditating with equal gravitas on Tiananmen Square and Tinder. The results are in turns cheeky and devastating, and the sheer sound of it is utterly her own.
-
evoke the delicate colors and harmonies of Chinese folk music. As the piece progressed, I especially liked the way melodic lines were played in block chords of thick, fuzzy, wonderfully diffuse sonorities.
-
unmistakable sense of rhythmic freedom. This was a fanfare of joy and exuberance
-
evocations and thoroughly contemporary field recordings, fashioned with wide-open ears and penetrating wit.
-
whimsical, freewheeling... it was one of the finest works of new music I’ve heard in a while...
Latest News
Upcoming premiere, "Fabric," a multi-movement work for string ensemble and piano
Community Music Works will premiere Fabric multi movement work for string ensemble and piano on Saturday, September 28 to open the organization’s new center in downtown Providence.
Wang Lu awarded 2023-24 Toulmin Fellowship
Wang Lu awarded a Toulmin Fellowship by the National Sawdust and NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts to develop a large scale dance work. Read the full article
IMPACT-Brown University
Composing
as Cultural Research
“The sonic insights I have developed become
my own musical vocabulary.” —WANG LU
Read the full article
Miller Theatre’s podcast
Mission: Commission | Season 3
New episodes every Tuesday until the premiere of the new work onward, wayward at Miller Theatre on June 27th. Across a six-week timeline to create newly commissioned pieces of music. This season, each composer writes a work for piano and another instrument: "Piano + 1". Stay tuned: missioncommissionpodcast.com
Upcoming premiere with the Seattle Modern Orchestra
“The Nothing Man and Other Tales”
“The Nothing Man and Other Tales,” taps into this human hunger by recounting a series of stories she discovered in a children’s book that her daughter has been enjoying. Her musical treatment transforms these tales into adventures for adult ears.
Wang Lu: Aftertouch
[New Release - May 12, 2023] Claire Chase: Density 2036: Parts VI - VIII (2019 - 2021) Compact Disc
Virtuoso flutist Claire Chase continues her laudable documentation of her multi-year commissioning project, Density 2036, with a 3 CD set of the works from the 2019, 2020, and 2021 iterations. 
Watch preview video
Wang Lu: Aftertouch
Claire Chase: Density 2036: Part VIII (2021)
Virtuoso flutist Claire Chase continues her laudable documentation of her multi-year commissioning project, Density 2036, with digital release of newly premiered works from 2021. Watch preview video
2023 The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation
2023 Fellowship Awardee of The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship. Three New Large-scale Compositions: Storytelling Through Themes of Place, Belonging, and Community.
Wang Lu: Consultations Apart
Consultations Apart for solo piano released on Jacob Greenberg’s solo album Living Language. Listen
From The NY Times on my upcoming commission from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation to write a new orchestra piece for the NY Phil
An initiative by the League of American Orchestras will enlist 30 ensembles to perform works by six living composers, all of them women.
New York Philharmonic March 14th
My piece Between Air for clarinet and string quartet will be played at the NY Phi’s Sound On concert on March 14th.
Opera - The Beekeeper [World Premiere]
Friday, March 4, 2022 @ 7:30pm
Music by Wang Lu | Libretto by Kelley Rourke
Chicago Opera Theater
Wang Lu: Bathing
[New Release] Quaking Aspen | Stephanie Lamprea & William Bond
New Focus Recordings, anuary 7, 2022
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Jacob Greenberg Premieres Constellations Apart for solo piano at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
One Episode of Desert In: a TV-opera, commissioned by Boston Lyric Opera
Episode 5: “i miss you more than I remember you” Composer: Wang Lu; Writer: christopher oscar peña. Coming to operabox.tv June 2021. Pre-Order Episode 5 Now!
21 for ’21: Composers and performers who sound like tomorrow
These 21 represent an array of approaches, identities, experiences and, most of all, exciting ways of imagining what our future together sounds like.
Wang Lu awarded 2021 Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters
This $10,000 prize in music composition was established through a bequest from Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond.
Summer Residency for New Music
The DePaul University School of Music announces a week-long virtual Summer Residency for New Music in collaboration with Ensemble Dal Niente and featuring distinguished guest composer Wang Lu.
Wang Lu’s An Atlas of Time Conjures Vivid Memories
...Highly evocative sonic images conceal secret compartments with deep personal significance.
The Best Contemporary Classical Albums of 2020
Wang Lu: An Atlas of Time (New Focus Recordings). On this bracing new collection of pieces written between 2008 and 2017, Chinese-American composer Wang Lu powerfully translates disparate perceptions of time within a very diverse program.
An Atlas of Time, Review from I care if you listen
Two years have passed since the release of Wang Lu’s debut album Urban Inventory, making the release of her second album, An Atlas of Time (New Focus Recordings), a compelling expansion of her artistic range.
Wang Lu: Like Clockwork
(World Premiere)
December 19, 2020 8:00 pm. Seattle Modern Orchestra at the “This is Beethoven” festival. Featuring a world premiere by Wang Lu, Like Clockwork, and Mauricio Kagel’s 1970 Ludwig van. Broadcast from Vashon Arts Center.
Open Score, A conversation with Jeremy Jolly
Composer Wang Luin conversation with SMO co-Artistic Director Jérémy Jolley. The conversation will explore Wang's artistic path and aesthetic inquiry with a focus on her new piece commissioned by SMO and premiered in December, Like Clockwork.
Release of Wang Lu: An Atlas of Time on New Focus Recordings, Nov. 20, 2020
An Atlas of Time, her second recording on New Focus, featuring two large ensemble works performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), will be released on Nov. 20, 2020.
A new piece for Seattle Modern Orchestra at the 'This is Beethoven' festival.
"This new work will explore Wang’s personal relationship with the music of Beethoven, and is a response to its ideals using her own aesthetic and musical language."
Rates of Extinction, Review from I care if you listen
Wang Lu’s Rates of Extinction (2016) is a multi-movement work that presents five relatively short unnamed movements...
Wang Lu Selected for Vanguard Emerging Opera Composer Program
Wang Lu Selected for Chicago Opera Theater’s Vanguard Emerging Opera Composer Program, 20/21 Season & 21/22 Season.
After some remarks by CW on his work
[New Release] Ben Melsky / Ensemble Dal Niente, New Focus Recordings, September 13, 2019
Wang Lu awarded the Berlin Prize
Spring 2019: Wang Lu awarded the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin, for a Spring 2019 residency.
Wang Lu receives a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress
October 2018: Wang Lu receives a commission from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress. The new work will be premiered by Yarn/Wire in February 2019, at Miller Theater.
Release of Urban Inventory on New Focus Recordings
March 16, 2018: Release of Urban Inventory on New Focus Recordings. Works for chamber ensemble, sinfonietta, and orchestra, composed 2008-16. Performances by Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Holland Symfonia, International Contemporary Ensemble, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and Third Sound.