Zhu Jan’er grew up in Shanghai and taught himself to play the piano during his middle school years. Even before receiving a formal music education, he began composing and worked in a Literature and Arts Troupe(wengongtuan) in the 1940s. From 1949 he served as a composer for the Shanghai and Beijing National Film Studios. He was sent to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow (1955–60). Since 1975 he has worked for the Shanghai Symphony as a composer-in-residence. In the late 1990s he went to New York as a visiting scholar, studying contemporary music.

 

His stylistic development is remarkable. His early works, such as the overture The Holiday (Jieri, 1958), a symphonic cantata based on words by Mao Zedong (1959), and a Fugato for string quartet, based on the model ballet The White-haired Girl (Baimaonü, 1972) and composed together with Shi Yongkang, are all characterized by a tonal, pentatonic idiom. As composer-in-residence at the Shanghai Symphony, he attended many classes on New Music held at the Shanghai Conservatory. This, along with field-trips to Guizhou province, are reflected in his numerous symphonies and symphonic poems written in short succession since the mid 1980s. Each explores new dimensions in compositional technique and instrumental make-up.

 

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Conductor: Chen Xieyang

Suona: Hu Chenyun

Cello: Huang Beixing
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

Shanghai Spring Children’s Choir

 

[Heaven]
Suona Concerto “Tian yue” (The Heavenly Music), Op.30 20’
(Suona: Hu Chenyun)
[Earth]
Symphony No.3 “Tibet”, Op.29: I. “Mysterious Land” 21’
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[Human]
Epic Deeds, Op.12b 15’
Sketches in the Mountains of Guizhou, Op.23: II. “The Old Xiao Player” 6’
A Wonder of Naxi, Op.25: II. “A Heart-to-heart Talk between a Mother and a Daughter” 4’
Fishermen’s Ballade Suite No.1, Op.16: III. “Lullaby” 5’
(Cello: Huang Beixing)
[Harmony]
Lantern Festival, for orchestra, Op.44 12’
Symphony No.9, Op.43: III. “Lullaby” 13’
(Chorus: Shanghai Spring Children’s Choir )