Xiaogang YE is the founding dean of School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, a professor of the Central Conservatory of Music, and a music educator. YE was a member of the National Committee of 10th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a member of the Standing Committee of the 11th, 12th, and 13th CPPCC. He is currently vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, chairman of the China Musicians Association, an international honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, international chair in composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, distinguished professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music  and the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou, honorary professor of the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, and a consultant to the Tianjin Juilliard School. YE is the founder and artistic director of the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Shenzhen Belt & Road International Music Festival, Tsingtao International Music Festival, Guangdong-Hongkong-Macao Greater Bay Area Music Season, and International Music Competition Harbin. He is one of the members of Talents Project selected by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, and an expert who enjoys a special allowance from the State Council. YE is a representative figure of contemporary Chinese music and one of the most well-known composers in the country.

YE has composed a large number of works in a variety of genres, including symphonic music, chamber music, dance drama and opera, as well as film and TV music. YE’s important symphonic works include Ode to Heroes, Horizon, The Last Paradise, Song of the Earth, Twilight of the Himalayas, Scent of Green Mango, Mount E’mei, Lu Xun (Symphony No.5), The Heroes (Symphony No.7), The Backyard of the Village, Springs in the Forest, Yangzhuoyong Cuo, Shenzhen Story, Macau Bride Suites and Yong Le. The Jade Goddess of Mercy and The Rise of the Great Nations, two of his film scores, were very well received. YE’s piano concerto Starry Sky, written for Lang Lang, was viewed by an audience of around three billion people worldwide when it was performed as part of the opening ceremony concert of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Since 1995, the world-renowned publisher Schott has published and served as an agent for YE’s works.

YE’s works have been widely performed by orchestras in China and abroad, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Munchner Philharmoniker, Philhamoniker Hamburg, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Del Teatro Alla Scala, Russian National Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, New Japanese Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, China Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. His works have been presented in the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Macau Arts Festival, Beijing Music Festival, Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, Shanghai New Music Week, Musikfestspiele Saar, Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music, and George Enescu International Festival.

Beginning in 2013, the “China Story” concert series featuring YE’s music has been presented in venues all over the world, including Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center (New York), and concert halls in Berlin, Saarbrücken, Münich, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Moscow, Kolkata, San Jose (Costa Rica), Lima (Peru), Nates (France), Dublin, and Bydgoszcz (Poland). The events have constituted a significant contribution to the propagation of Chinese contemporary music on the international stage, receiving wide acclaim and gaining great success.

YE has been the recipient of many prestigious honors in China and abroad, including a Five Distinguished Project Award by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, a Wenhua Music Award by the China Ministry of Culture, a first prize of the Golden Bell Award by the China Musicians Association, a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship Award, and a 2013 China Arts Award, among others. YE has composed music for more than 30 important Chinese movies and TV series, and won “The Best Score Award” five times for his efforts in this area.

As a member of the Standing Committee of the 11th, 12th, and 13th CPPCC, YE has been enthusiastic in the promotion of music and of national arts education. He has made strong appeals to increase government funding for the arts and has proposed motions concerning cross-cultural exchanges and the protection of musical copyright. At many national meetings, YE has called relentlessly for increasing public attention to the protection of intellectual property, and for the promotion of cultural exchanges with the rest of the world. There has been dramatic progress in both of these areas as a result of his vigorous efforts.

CHAN Wing Wah, JP, is currently serving as Associate Dean of the School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Prof. CHAN was the first Resident Composer of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and has written 10 symphonies plus over 200 musical works including chamber and orchestral music with Chinese, Western, Japanese and Korean instruments, songs for adults and children. Seven of his ten Symphonies were released on CD by Hugo Productions performed by orchestras in Hong Kong (China) and Russia. The music scores of Symphony No. 5 ‘The Three Kingdoms’ & No. 6 ‘Reunification’ were published by People’s Music Publishing House. His Symphony No. 8 and 10 were recently released by National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing.

His music has received First Prize in the International Double Reed Society Composition Contest, USA; the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Award from the Asian Composers League, and several local awards. His works had been performed in over 30 countries and his biography is included in the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians Online and Oxford Music Online. The Government of Hong Kong SAR appointed him Justice of the Peace in 2000.

Prof. CHAN became the Music Director of the Hong Kong Oratorio Society (HKOS) (established in 1956) since 1995 and has been leading this choir with regular concerts and concert tours. In 2017, he conducted the HKOS and a string orchestra in San Francisco to perform his Symphony No.8 ‘This Boundless Land’ for organ, choir and orchestra in the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In 2019, he brought the HKOS together with the Vancouver Oratorio Society to Toronto for the premiere of his Symphony No.9 ‘Universal Harmony’. His Symphony No.10 ‘Spring and Autumn’ for Chinese Orchestra was recently premiered in two concerts presented by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in July, 2022. He was invited to become a Council member of the China Musicians Association in 2009.

Prof. CHAN received his BA in music from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) studying composition with Professor David Gwilt. He then finished his Master and Doctor of Music (Composition) studies at the University of Toronto on a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship studying with Professor John Beckwith. Internationally he had served as an Executive Committee member of the International Society for Contemporary Music and the Vice-Chairman of the Asian Composers’ League. Locally he had been a Professor of Music, Associate Dean of Arts, and Chairman of the Music Department at CUHK. He had also dedicated a part of his time to serve as an appointed Regional Council member, Hong Kong Arts Development Council member, Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Chairman among others. 

He is now Associate Dean of the School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Chairman of the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong (a music copyright organization), Chairman of the HK Association of Choral Societies, Music Director of the HK Oratorio Society and Allegro Singer, Council member of the Hong Kong Children’s Choir and Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. He also serves as an advisor in numerous groups including the China Musicians Association, Hong Kong Dance Company, New Tune Chinese Orchestra, Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble, Harmonic Singers among others.

Ping JIN is currently a professor, Associate Dean (Research), and Academic Leader of Composition & Theory at the School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Before returning to China in 2008, he was a tenured professor and Chair of Composition and Music Theory at the State University of New York. He has also served as a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, a professor in the Digital Arts Department of the School of Software and Microelectronics at Peking University, and Chair of the Composition Department at the China Conservatory of Music.

Ping JIN has composed a substantial body of orchestral, chamber, and Chinese orchestral works. His compositions have been performed by renowned orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Opera House Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Academia China, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, Liaoning Symphony Orchestra, Harbin Symphony Orchestra, Newstead Trio, Earplay, and Plural Ensemble. His works have been widely performed in the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Japan, Mexico, and other countries. He has received numerous accolades, including the First Prize in the National Art Song Competition, the Golden Bell Award for Chinese ensemble composition, and the highest individual project award from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) for his sextet. His symphonic poem An Odyssey was selected as a supported work under the Symphony of the Times – Chinese Symphonic Music Composition Support Plan by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

A pioneering figure in the field of computer music in China, Ping JIN began systematically introducing the Max software to the Central Conservatory of Music and the China Conservatory of Music in 2004. Under his guidance, students presented China's first interactive computer music concert at the 2006 Beijing Modern Music Festival, marking a milestone in the development of computer music in China. After returning to China in 2008, he dedicated himself to computer music education, establishing a comprehensive curriculum for undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the Central Conservatory of Music. His efforts have nurtured a new generation of composers and artists in the fields of computer music and new media composition.

From 2010 to 2015, Ping JIN served as Director of the Electronic Music Center in the Digital Arts Department of the School of Software and Microelectronics at Peking University, where he worked to integrate digital media with computer music and promote interdisciplinary research and creation in new media art in China.

His work The Travels of Mariko Horo, an interactive 3D virtual reality installation and dance collaboration with Tamiko Thiel, premiered at the 2006 Munich Festival for Contemporary Dance and won the Munich City Government's New Media Art Award. His interactive dance work The Rhyme of Tang Dynasty premiered at SIGGRAPH 2007, an international computer multimedia art exhibition in the United States. He has also created three interactive new media stage works: A Reflection in the Brook (2013), for female dancer, solo violin, and live computer music; Lost Voices (2015), for female singer/dancer and live computer music; and A Ferry Tale (2016), an interactive musical theatre piece for folk singers, live computer music, and 3D projections. This trilogy, centered on women, explored the application of new technology and interactive performance in presenting traditional Chinese cultural elements, offering valuable insights and inspiration for new media music creation in China.

Dedicated to introducing Chinese works and young Chinese composers to the West, Ping JIN curated New Voices from China in 2004, a concert at Bard College in the United States featuring works by eight Chinese composers under the age of 30 from the Central Conservatory, the Shanghai Conservatory, and the Sichuan Conservatory. In 2009 and 2011, in collaboration with the Schoenberg family and the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna, he established the Schoenberg Academy, funding young Chinese composers, conductors, performers, and singers to study, research, and perform in Vienna. Several dozen young faculty members and students from the Central Conservatory, the Shanghai Conservatory, the China Conservatory, the Sichuan Conservatory, and the Shenyang Conservatory have participated in this program.

To introduce influential academic texts to China, Ping JIN has overseen the translation and publication of The Study of Orchestration (by Samuel Adler), Computer Music Tutorial (by Curtis Roads), and The Musical Idea and the Logic, Technique, and Art of Its Presentation (by Arnold Schoenberg).

Ping JIN has served as President of the Society for New Music in the United States, Chair of the Jury for the Davenport Orchestral Composition Competition, a Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Music Director of the Beijing International Electronic Music Festival (MUSICACOUSTICA-BEIJING), and Chair of the 2023 International Computer Music Conference. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Institute of Musicology at the Central Conservatory of Music, a key research base for humanities and social sciences designated by the Ministry of Education, and a board member of the International Computer Music Association.

Ping JIN graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music, studying composition under Xiaogang YE and Mingxin DU. In 1990, he moved to the United States, where he earned his master's and doctoral degrees from Syracuse University and the University of Cincinnati, respectively, studying under Joseph Downing, Dan Godfrey, Joel Hoffman, and Samuel Adler.

ZHANG Liping is currently serving as an Associate Dean (Faculty) at the School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. She is a Professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Voice & Opera at the Central Conservatory of Music. Member of the 12th,13th and 14th CPPCC National Committee. Member of the China Musicians Association. She has been elected to the National Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Talents Project. She was selected as one of the experts eligible for special government allowances from the State Council.

She is a leading soprano who performed at the world’s major opera houses and a famous vocal artist active at the world’s top opera houses. She has starred in operas including Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San), La Traviata (Violetta), La Bohème (Mimì), Turandot (Liu), Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia), Rigoletto (Gilda), etc. at the Royal Opera House, Metropolitan Opera House, Opéra national de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin Opera, Teatro Regio di Parma, Barcelona Opera House, the NCPA and so on. Madama Butterfly, which was starred by her, was shot into a 3D version and released worldwide. CCTV's "People's Column" program, Hong Kong Pearl TV once went to Europe to report on her grand performance internationally.

In 2008, the world-famous record label EMI released ZHANG Liping’s first solo CD Arias worldwide, receiving a positive response on a broad scale. In 2009, the operas she starred in at the first opera festival of the National Centre for the Performing Arts were widely praised, including the opera Tosca, the new version of La Traviata directed by Lorraine Maazel, and the Madama Butterfly starred by the Phoenix Opera House in Venice, Italy. In the same year, she starred in the first original opera Xishi produced by the National Centre for the Performing Arts. In 2010, she played a role in the musical Love Never Dies at the invitation of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and recorded the theme song in Chinese (released by Universal Music). In 2011 and 2013, she starred in Madama Butterfly at the Royal Opera House. In 2014, she became the first Chinese classical singer to sign a contract with Universal Music. In the same year, she released albums under the brand name of Decca, including one titled Night and Dreams, containing Schubert’s art songs, and one named Homesickness—Chinese Art Songs. In 2017, she won the China Gold Record Award for the Best Bel Canto Singer. In 2018, she released an album of opera arias titled Verdi’s Arias under the label of DG.

ZHANG Boyu, male, born in 1958, is Assistant Dean (Student Affairs) and a tenured professor at the Musicology Division of the School of Music, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. He graduated from The Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) and received his BA in 1987 and MA in 1989. From September 1991 to July 1998, he studied at Turku University in Finland and earned his Licentiate in 1995 and PhD in 1997. He returned to China in August 1998. From November 2000 to June 2001, he conducted research at Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in New Delhi under the Asian Fellowship of Ford Foundation. From August 2005 to July 2006, he visited Wesleyan University, USA, on a Fulbright Fellowship. He served as Chair of the Musicology Department (2002-2011) and was Director of the Intangible Cultural Protection and Research Centre (2014-2019) at CCOM.

His research and publishing projects have been granted by various state-level research funds including the Musicology Institute at CCOM (one of the Key Research Bases for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education), The National Social Science Fund of China, China National Arts Fund, The National Science and Technology Support Project in the "12th Five Year Planning", National Publishing Foundation. He has authored three research books, co-authored six others, contributed to seven book chapters (one of which was published by Oxford University Press), edited seven books, and translated six books.

He was a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Humanities Faculty of Helsinki University (2011-2014) and is currently the vice-Chairman of The Association of Traditional Music in China.

He was titled as a prominent academic staff (CCOM, 2014), "Career Achievement Award for Returned Overseas"(by six ministries, 2003), and received subsidies from the State Council. His publications received the Third Prize of "The Sixth Scientific Research Achievements in Higher Education"(Beijing Education Committee, 2005), the First Prize in the "Best Selections of Filial Piety Writings" organized by Youth Daily (2010), Prominent Research Achievement of the "Ninth Golden Bell Prize on Music Theory" by China Musicians Association (2013), the First Prize by Chinese University Publishers Union (2015), the Best Piece of "Woodpecker Cap" by China Literature and Arts Critics Association (2016), Second Prize of the "Prominent Scientific Research Achievements" by Ministry of Education (2019). He was selected as "one of the best theorists and critics of Chinese music" by China Nationalities Orchestra Society (2020).