Jeffrey Ching

Jeffrey Ching (Chinese: 莊祖欣; pinyin: Zhuang Zŭxin; born 4 November 1965) is a British contemporary classical composer, born in the Philippines of Chinese parentage. His rich and complex musical language, irreducible to a single style, explores the correspondences and contradictions between the traditions of Europe and Asia, and between the music of past centuries and the present. His most recent large-scale work was Das Waisenkind (The Orphan) (see below), which was premiered in 2009 in Theater Erfurt, the most modern opera house in Germany. This opera won the Zuschauerpreis (Audience Prize) for Best Opera Production of 2009-2010, a rare triumph for a contemporary composition, and also earned unanimous praise from European critics. In 2013 he was nominated for the prestigious Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy.

Life and education

Ching's distinctive musical language owes much to the diversity of his cultural background and education. He was born to a Chinese Buddhist family in the former Spanish-American colony of the Philippines, and received a Catholic education while growing up next door to his grandfather's private museum of ancient Chinese scrolls. He began composing before he was ten and remained self-taught until he went to the United States to study music and Sinology at Harvard University. There he received the John Harvard Scholarship twice for "academic achievements of the highest distinction", and the Harvard Detur Prize, the university's oldest prize for academic excellence. He graduated with a double magna cum laude, submitting a graduation thesis on the sumptuary laws of the Ming dynasty based on extensive research into primary sources. Afterwards he went to England to read law, philosophy, and composition at Cambridge and London Universities. For several years he taught music at the University of London, eventually becoming Lecturer-in-Music there. He took British citizenship in 2004, and now resides most of the year in Berlin with his wife, the Spanish-Philippine soprano Andión Fernández, for whom the vocal parts in his principal works were created. They have a son and a daughter.

Creative development

First three symphonies

While the early Symphony No. 1 in C was a meticulously crafted homage to Viennese classicism, the expressionistic Symphony No. 2, "The Imp of the Perverse" (premiered by the Jeunesses Musicales World Youth Orchestra under Woldemar Nelsson, Manila, 1995) was composed in forty days in the manner of an extended mental improvisation, fully orchestrated from the outset, and without any sketches or pre-conceived structural or tonal plan.

It was not until 1998 that Ching's technical versatility was put at the service of his widening ethnographic interests. A Philippine government commission on the occasion of the Philippine centennial resulted in his Symphony No. 3, "Rituals" (premiered by the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under Josefino Toledo, Manila, 1998) which fuses Balinese gamelan, Chinese Ming, and Spanish Renaissance elements into a continuous forty-five-minute collage for three orchestras and male chanter. Following this compositional breakthrough, Ching broadened his field of cross-cultural investigation even further, as an examination of his recent works reveals.

Recent works

Ching's latest works are:

Honours and Audience Prize

Although a European resident for over twenty years, Ching's achievements are well recognised in the country of his birth.

Publication

Most of Jeffrey Ching's recent works, including the critically acclaimed opera The Orphan, have been published in Germany by edition gravis . Further information about works in preparation, critical notices, concert dates, and more music samples may be found on the composer's homepage .

References