Xu Yi (simplified Chinese: 徐仪; traditional Chinese: 徐儀; pinyin: Xú Yí; born 1963) is a Chinese-born French composer and music educator in France.
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Early life
In 1963, Xu Yi was born in Nanjing, China.
Xu Yi began playing the Chinese violin, erhu, at a very young age.
Education
Xu Yi was a student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she continued the violin, and later joined the class of composition.
After her arrival in France in 1988, she studied the Cursus of Composition and Computer Music of the IRCAM (1990/1991). She entered the Conservatory of Music of Paris, where she studied with Gérard Grisey and Ivo Malec.
Career
At the age of 22, Xu became a teacher at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
Xu Yi won First Prize in composition in Conservatoire de Paris in 1994. She was the winner of the Prix de Rome, winning the honor of living in the Villa Medici in Rome from 1996 to 1998 (she was the first composer of Chinese origin to win this prize). Xu was professor of composition at the Cergy-Pontoise National Conservatory of Music (2001–2003). She is a distinguished Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Currently, Xu lives in France and is a distinguished Professor at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music.
Xu Yi has received commissions from the French government, Radio France, and many festivals and ensembles. She has composed some 60 works, which have been performed at numerous festivals and broadcast in Europe, China, Japan, the US, Brazil and Canada. Several monographic concerts of Xu's music have been organized in France and in Italy. One monographic disc of her works (MFA-Radio France 1999) was distributed by Harmonia Mundi. Her work "Le Plein du Vide" was selected by the French Ministry of Education for the final high school music exam in 2006 and 2007. Many of her works are published by the music publishing House Henry Lemoine, in Paris.
Works
2025 "Space-time of the heart", for 11 percussionists, electroacoustics, and video art (Shanghai Percussion Ensemble/IPEA commission)
2024-25 "Cinq transformations", for string quartet N.3 (ProQuartet, Centre Présence Compositrices, Quatuor Akilone commission)
2024 "Vers le vide parfait", for string quartet N.2 (French State commission)
2023 "Trois poèmes anciens", for mezzo-soprano, qin and percussions, poems de Xu Mu, Xue Tao, Xu Can
2023 "Ô silence", for soprano, bass clarinet, viola and piano, Poem of Marie Closset
2022 "Cha ji / Wabi-sabi", for flute, clarinet, 2 percussions, violin and zheng (TimeArt studio commission)
2022 "Entre eux, entente à demi-mot", for mezzo-soprano, flute, percussion, violin and cello, poem of François Cheng
2021 "Dry in a storm", for mezzo-sprano (with percussions), Poems by Joyce Shintanin and by Emily Dickinson
2021 "Echo nocturne", for birbyne solo
2020 "To wait an hour-si long", for soprano, violon ans cello, 5 Poems (Quatrains) by Emily Dickinson (Radio France commission)
2020 "The Dust of time", for percussion
2020 "Self/nonself", for yunluo (with one big cymbal)
2019 "Métamorphoses du serpent blanc", chamber opera (French State commissions), Laure Gauthier : Text and poem in French; Xu Yi : poems in chinese, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, maîtrise, little children's choir, 6 instruments and electronic device spatialized in multitrack
Discographie
2017 "Zhiyin" cello solo, (7') CD of the"Collection of Excellent Works by Alumni from SHCM" pour "The 90th Anniversary of Shanghai Conservatory of Music" 2017
2013 "Si He", "Si He" for Qin, flute, cello and percussion (9') China Record Co. Shanghai
2005 "Tai", for Zheng and orchestra, (11') CD Shanghai Conservatory of Music 2005
1999 "Le Plein du Vide", "Wang", "Yi", "Echo de la terre profonde", "Gu Yin", "Xiao-Yao-You"(70') Radio France / MFA / Villa Médicis 1999, MFA 216032 HMCD 73.
1994 "Huntun" (13') for 5 instrumental groups spatialised CD Journées de la composition, CNSMP 1994.
1988 "Esprit poétique"1983-1988 (26'), for Erhu (violon chinois) and chinese orchestra, Fu Mao Record Co. Taiwan, 1988, Fu jian Record Co. XCD-93014 / 1993, 1994.
1986 "Vallée vide" 1984 (7'), for Chinese flute, zheng and sets-gong China Record Co. Shanghai, 1986.
1982 "Small frogs" for ensemble of erhu (Chinese violin)1982 (6'), China Record Co. Shanghai, 1982.