Ming Tsao

Born in Berkeley, California, Ming Tsao is the son of Jung Ying Tsao (曹仲英), who emigrated to California from Tianjin, China and was a collector and scholar of Chinese painting.{{Cite book |last=Wan |first=Qingli, Zhao Li, Lu Fusheng, Qian Shaowu, Hou Yimin, Cai Xingyi, Shan Guolin |title=Selected Masterworks of Modern Chinese Painting: The Tsao Family Mozhai Collection (4 volumes). |publisher=Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House |year=2010 |isbn=978-7807258483 |location=China |language=Chinese}} His mother, Elna Hoeber, began Ming Tsao's musical education at the age of five with the violin. Her father, Frank Hoeber, was a violinist who emigrated to Colorado from Vienna, Austria and played first violin in the Denver Symphony Orchestra.{{Cite web |last=Rolfs |first=Ninia |date=January 26, 2023 |title=Removing the Anchors |url=https://en.karstenwitt.com/article/komponist-ming-tsao-im-portr%C3%A4t |website=Karsten Witt Magazin}} As a student, Ming Tsao traveled to Suzhou, China for a year to study the traditional zither (guqin: 古琴) with the renowned guqin performer Wu Zhaoji (吳兆基). He received graduate degrees in music composition, ethnomusicology, and mathematics.{{Cite web |last=Tsao |first=Ming |date=November 9, 2023 |title=Wise Music Classical: Ming Tsao |url=https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/composer/6310/Ming-Tsao/ |access-date=November 9, 2023 |website=Wise Music Classical}}{{Cite web |last=McGarvey |first=Matt |date=November 14, 2007 |title=Composer Ming Tsao on inspiration, UCSD, and the future |url=https://music-cms.ucsd.edu/concerts/news/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913105023/http://music-cms.ucsd.edu/concerts/news/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 13, 2018 |access-date=November 11, 2023 |website=UCSD Department of Music Current News}}

Ming Tsao was Professor of Composition at University of Gothenburg, Sweden{{Cite news |last=Aaberg |first=Helena |date=June 23, 2009 |title=Ming Tsao appointed Professor of Composition, University of Gothenburg |work=IDW – informationsdienst Wissenschaft Magazin |url=https://idw-online.de/de/news322153 |access-date=January 26, 2023}}{{Cite journal |last=Engstörm |first=Andreas |date=2012 |title=Konstmusik – bakgrund och identification: Kompositionsprofessorerna svarar |url=http://tidskrift.nu/artikel.php?Id=8423 |journal=Nutida Musik |volume=1 – 2 |pages=27–28}} and Visiting Professor of Composition at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media in Germany{{Cite web |last=Klein |first=Hella |date=January 26, 2023 |title=Ming Tsao: Vertretung der Professur von Prof. Rebecca Saunders (Komposition) |url=https://www.hmtm-hannover.de/de/studium/personen/t-z/ming-tsao/ |website=Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover}}{{Cite web |last=Zander |first=Margaret |date=February 27, 2021 |title=neue musik: Experiment und Schönheit der Neuen Musik – Komponieren studieren an der HMTM Hannover |url=https://blogs.nmz.de/badblog/2021/02/27/die-radiowoche-vom-01-03-bis-07-03-2021/ |website=neue musikzeitung}} and is currently the Birge–Cary Professor of Music at the University at Buffalo in New York.{{Cite web |last=Dean |first=Dusti |date=April 2024 |title=Ming Tsao appointed as Birge-Cary Professor of Music Fall 2024 |url=https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/music/news/recent-news/ming-tsao-birge-cary-professor.html |access-date=August 8, 2024 |website=University at Buffalo, Department of Music}} In 2021, he was awarded a Guggenheim for music composition.{{Cite web |last=Welsh |first=Kate |date=January 23, 2023 |title=Ming Tsao Fellow |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/ming-tsao/ |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}}{{Cite web |last=Klein |first=Hella |date=April 27, 2021 |title=Guggenheim-Stipendium für Ming Tsao |url=https://www.hmtm-hannover.de/de/aktuelles/preistraeger/archiv/2021/april/artikel/guggenheim-stipendium-fuer-ming-tsao/ |website=HTMT Hochschule für Musik, theater und Medien}} His music is published by Edition Peters{{Cite web |last=Tsao |first=Ming |date=November 9, 2023 |title=Wise Music Classical |url=https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/composer/6310/Ming-Tsao/ |access-date=November 9, 2023 |website=Wise Music Classical}} and has been released on the Kairos and Mode CD labels.{{Cite web |last=Tsao |first=Ming |date=November 9, 2023 |title=Kairos |url=https://www.kairos-music.com/people/ming-tsao |access-date=November 9, 2023 |website=Kairos}}{{Cite web |last=Tsao |first=Ming |date=November 9, 2023 |title=Mode Records |url=https://moderecords.com/catalog/268-ming/ |access-date=November 9, 2023 |website=Mode Records}}

Ming Tsao's musical style combines what he calls the "materiality" or sensuality arising from the inherent qualities of sound, with a formal, precise rigour in compositional style.{{Cite web |last=Witt |first=Karsten |date=December 2, 2023 |title=Ming Tsao Composer |url=https://en.karstenwitt.com/artist/ming-tsao |website=karstenwittmusikmanagement}} His compositions have been described as "virtuosic" and the work of "a highly complex thinking"{{Cite web |last=Mörchen |first=Raoul |date=January 26, 2023 |title=Ming Tsao: Pathology of Syntax |url=https://www.rondomagazin.de/kritiken.php?kritiken_id=8995 |website=Rondo: Das Klassik- & Jazz-Magazin}} conveying a "multitude of fantastic orchestrational details", and a "genuinely dazzling range of invention."{{Cite web |last=Cummings |first=Simon |date= 30 December 2017|title=Best Albums of 2017 (Part 1) |url=https://5against4.com/2017/12/30/best-albums-of-2017-part-1/ |access-date= |website=5 against 4}}

His opera Die Geisterinsel ("The Ghost Island"), based on William Shakespeare's The Tempest, was premiered by the Stuttgart Opera House for a first run of performances and was subsequently given a second run of performances at the Gothenburg Opera House (under the Swedish title Prosperos Trädgård or "Prospero's Garden") with an additional second act titled Mirandas Atemwende ("Miranda's Breathturn").{{Cite web |last=Großkreutz |first=Verena |date=May 5, 2011 |title=Prosperos Welt: "zeitoper"-Finale mit der Uraufführung von Ming Tsaos "Die Geisterinsel" in Stuttgart |url=https://www.nmz.de/politik-betrieb/musikleben/prosperos-welt-zeitoper-finale-mit-der-urauffuehrung-von-ming-tsaos-die |access-date= |website=Neue Musik Zeitung}}{{Cite news |last=Nyström |first=Martin |date=April 25, 2016 |title=Prosperos Trädgård" på Göteborgsoperan |url=https://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/scenrecensioner/prosperos-tradgard-pa-goteborgsoperan/ |website=Dagens Nyheter}}{{Cite book |last=Hiekel |first=Jörn Peter, Christian Utz |title=Lexicon Neue Musik |publisher=J.B. Metzler |year=2016 |isbn=978-3476023261 |location=Germany |pages=459 |language=German}} The opera was reviewed by Opernwelt as "having broken the prejudice that New Music after Strauss has lost its capacity to be sensual."{{Cite journal |last=Thiemann |first=Albrecht |date=2015 |title=Steinschlag, Sandfall, Atemstrom: Ming Tsaos Kammeroper "Die Geisterinsel" |url=https://www.der-theaterverlag.de/opernwelt/aktuelles-heft/artikel/steinschlag-sandfall-atemstrom/ |journal=Opernwelt |volume= |issue=September/October}} Other notable projects have included two works for large ensemble: Refuse Collection, an hommage to the oeuvre of French filmmakers Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub premiered at the Academy of Arts in Berlin;{{Cite web |last=Hering |first=Tobias |date=January 26, 2023 |title=Sounds of Resistance: Huillet/Straub und Arnold Schönberg |url=http://huilletstraub-berlin.net/de/programm/schoenberg-woche/ |website=Akademie der Kunste: Sagen Sie's den Steinen}} and Plus Minus, a full realisation of Karlheinz Stockhausen's open composition of the same name, reviewed as a "very powerful work that one experiences as if by Stockhausen himself,"{{Cite news |last=Zimmerlin |first=Alfred |date=May 3, 2013 |title=Erhellende Irritationen |work=Neue Zürcher Zeitung |url=https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/buehne/erhellende-irritationen-ld.1044718}}{{Cite news |last=Fuchs |first=Jörn Florian |date=April 28, 2013 |title="Multiple Module" – Eine Bilanz der Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik |work=Deutschlandfunk – Kultur heute |url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/kultur-heute-vom-28-04-100.html |access-date=April 30, 2023}} which was premiered at the Witten Days for New Chamber Music. In addition to his research on mathematical applications to music composition,{{Cite book |last=Tsao |first=Ming |title=Abstract Musical Intervals: Group Theory for Music Composition and Analysis |publisher=Musurgia Universalis Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1430308355 |location=Berkeley, California |pages=1–170 |language=English}} his principal interest has been the relation between poetry and music composition.{{Cite journal |last=Tsao |first=Ming |date=Autumn 2017 |title=What is Speculative Music Composition? |url=https://parsejournal.com/issue/speculation/ |journal=PARSE Journal |volume=7 |issue=Speculation Issue |pages=45–62}} He has focused his musical works on the poetry of Paul Celan and J.H. Prynne.{{Cite book |last=Tsao |first=Ming |title=Triode Variations |publisher=Kairos, HNE Rights GmbH |year=2022 |location=Austria |language=English, German}}

• Triode Variations (2019 – 20), large ensemble
• Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Inventionen (2019), clavichord
• Plus or Minus (2017 – 18), two pianos and electronics
• Refuse Collection (2017), large ensemble
• Das wassergewordene Kanonbuch (2016 – 17), chamber choir
• Mirandas Atemwende (2014 – 15), chamber opera
• Plus Minus (2012 – 13), large ensemble
• Serenade (2012), large ensemble
• Die Geisterinsel (2010 – 11), chamber opera
• (Un)cover (2008), seven instruments
• If ears were all that were needed... (2007), solo guitar
• Pathology of Syntax (2006 – 07), string quartet
• One–Way Street (2006), six instruments
• The Book of Virtual Transcriptions (2004 – 05), seven instruments
• Not Reconciled (2002 – 03), five instruments
• Canon (2001), clarinet and cello

• Ming Tsao: Triode Variations, Kairos Music, 2022 (0015105KAI)
• Ming Tsao: Plus Minus, Kairos Music, 2017 (0015014KAI)
• Ming Tsao: Die Geisterinsel, Kairos Music, 2014 (0013372KAI)
• Ming Tsao: Pathology of Syntax, Mode Records, 2014 (mode 268)

• Josel, Seth F. and Tsao, Ming. Techniques of Guitar Playing. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2014. {{ISBN|9783761822432}}.{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=William N. |date=2016 |title=[Review] The Techniques of Guitar Playing |url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/techniques-guitar-playing/docview/1807739026/se-2 |journal=Music Library Association Notes |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=109–111 |id={{ProQuest| }}}}
• Tsao, Ming. "Reverse Transkriptionen: Auf dem Weg zu einem materialistischen musikalischen Ausdruck," MusikTexte 175 (November 2022), 34–41 (in German).
• Tsao, Ming. "Helmut Lachenmann's 'Sound Types'," Perspectives of New Music, Volume 52, Number 1 (Winter 2014): 217–238.
• Tsao, Ming. Abstract Musical Intervals: Group Theory for Composition and Analysis, Musurgia Universalis Press, Berkeley, CA., 2010. {{ISBN|978-1430308355}}.

Bork, Camilla. "Diesseits und Jenseits der Gartens: zum Musiktheater Ming Tsaos," Musik & Ästhetik 22, 2/2018: 49–62 (in German).

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/composer/6310/Ming-Tsao/ Ming Tsao at Wise Classical Music]
• [https://www.mingtsao.net/ Ming Tsao Official Website]

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Category:Chinese composers

Category:American composers

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people