Our guest for this episode of the Music at Pitt Podcast is composition and theory doctoral candidate Wang Xinyang. Born in Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province, China, Wang Xinyang is a composer of classical music, currently based in Pittsburgh. He holds a bachelor's degree from Sichuan Conservatory of Music and a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music both in music composition and theory.

Xinyang takes inspiration from a broad spectrum of influences, such as traditional Chinese arts and its Western concert music. He’s been awarded numerous prizes in composition and has worked with many eminent interpreters. Recently he was announced as a finalist in the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award for his orchestral piece Boréas. The piece is scheduled to be performed on May 31 by at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in a performance by conductor Yasuo Shinozaki and the Tokyo Philharmonic. Like everything else in the time of a global pandemic, this event may be postponed, but we still thought it would be a good time to talk with Xinyang about his composition.

Excerpts heard in this recording:

"Gan-Jiang, Mo-Ye" for orchestra, 2018; performed by Suzhou Symphony under the baton of Zhu Qiyuan.

"A Celestial Inscript" for soprano and Pierrot quintet, 2016; performed by various artists in Italy.