Gao Ping is a composer, pianist, and professor in composition at the Conservatory of Music at Capital Normal University in Beijing. His music is known for evocative textures and piano vocalisation.
Gao Ping was born in the city of Chengdu in the Sichuan Province of China. His father, Gao Wei-jie, is a well-known composer and teacher who formed the first new music society in China, the Society for Exploration of New Music, in 1983.
Gao Ping grew up during China’s transformation from a collective to a market economy, and this transitional phase between old and new has left traces in his music. The Beijing-based musicologist Li Xi’An has referred to Gao Ping as a representative member of the “sixth generation” of artists, following the fifth generation which included artists such as Tan Dun and the film-maker Zhang Yimo. Gao Ping’s 1988 China Record Company album Jazz in China was one of the first domestic jazz-classical albums released in China. Works such as his Piano Quintet Mei Lan Zhu Ju (2009) and The Four Not-Alike (2012) for multi-functional pianist and Chinese instruments reflect the appeal of his fusing of Western and Eastern idioms, as well as the expanding interest in his compositions dealing with China and its multiple pasts.
Many prestigious venues have presented Gao Ping's works, including the Aspen Music Festival, Dresdener Musikfestspiele, Hibiki Hall Festival (Japan), New Zealand International Arts Festival, and the Beijing-Modern International Music Festival. In Europe, his music has been commissioned or performed by groups including the Berlin Piano-Percussion Ensemble, the Zurich-based Ensemble Pyramide, and the Gaudeamus International Music Week in Amsterdam. While completing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, Gao Ping won the 2003 Auros Composition Prize and was resident at the MacDowell Colony for Artists. In New Zealand, his music has been presented by Michael Houstoun, John Chen, Christchurch International Arts Festival, New Zealand String Quartet, and NZTrio. Gao Ping was the recipient of the 2010 CANZ (Composers Association of New Zealand) Trust Fund Award.
As a pianist, Gao Ping’s repertoire is extensive; he has performed to acclaim all over the world. His Night Alley for solo piano was performed as the obligatory work for the 4th China International Piano Competition in 2007. In 2008 Gao Ping premiered his Piano Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mr. Kenneth Young. The Listener magazine enthusiastically acclaimed the two-movement work as “a major concerto”.
Gao Ping is currently a Professor in Composition at the Conservatory of Music at Capital Normal University in Beijing, as well as a guest professor at the China Conservatory of Music. He previously taught composition in New Zealand, at Canterbury University’s School of Music in Christchurch and at Victoria University of Wellington.
