Composer

Biography

Born in southwest of Sichuan, China, Shen Nalin studied composition at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music with Prof. Gao Wei Jie and Yao Yi Rang. During the late ‘80s he was active in radio, film and television, including working as a broadcaster of classical music program in the Music Radio of Guangdong.

In 1994 he moved to New Zealand and worked at Auckland AM 1476 and AM 990 Chinese Radio for five years before enrolling at the School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington, where he studied with Jack Body, and graduated in 2000 with Master of Music with Distinction. In 2001 and 2002 he was granted a Postgraduate Scholarship for Ph.D study and a Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarship. For his Ph.D studies he is composing an opera based on the dramatic life and writings of Chinese poets.

He has composed chamber and orchestral music for piano, strings, orchestra, voices and compositions using Chinese instruments including The Mortal World for sheng, zheng, suona and percussion, and The Cold Dream for zheng, sheng, strings and percussion He completed his First Symphony in 1988. His more recent work has been influenced by traditional Chinese music, the string quartet: Zha Xi De Lei influenced by Tibetan folk songs and the chamber works Sheng Sheng Man and Hymn to the Virtue of Win.

Shen Nalin has received awards from the Autumn Musical Festival of Chengdu, the 21st Annual Composition Contest 1990 Composers Guild USA, the fifth Guangzhou Musical Festival, and the Composer’s Competition of Victoria University of Wellington. His compositions had been performed at The 2002 Melbourne Festival Australia, the Asia Pacific Festival in Wellington in February 2007 and the ISCM-ACL World Music Days 2007 in Hong Kong.