Ming Tsao

Ming Tsao

Ming Tsao is a Chinese-American composer active in Europe. Performance projects include the successful opera Die Geisterinsel for the Staatsoper Stuttgart in May 2011. His compositions have been performed by ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, ensemble recherché, ELISION Ensemble, Ensemble SurPlus, Ensemble Ascolta in venues such as the Donaueschingen Festival, Wien Modern, Wittener Tage Festival, Maerz Musik Festival, Darmstadt New Music Courses. He is currently working on a song cycle titled Mirandas Atem-wende based on the poetry of Paul Celan.  Ming Tsao is also the author of the book Abstract Musical Intervals: Group Theory for Composition and Analysis. His music is published by Edition Peters.

Ming Tsao is also Professor of Composition at Göteborg University, Academy of Music and Drama, and holds a PhD in Music Composition from the University of California, San Diego, an MA in Mathematics from the San Francisco State University, an MA in Ethnomusicology from Columbia University and a BM in Music Composition from the Berklee College of Music. Further studies have included logic and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as film and poetry at UCSD. Tsao’s principal composition teachers have been Chaya Czernowin, Brian Ferneyhough and Mario Davidovsky.