Tan Dun
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Tan Dun was born in the village of Simao, Changsha in the Hunan province of China. As a child, he was fascinated by the role in his village of the shaman, who conducted rituals and ceremonies, often set to music made with organic objects like rocks and water. However, as a child in the midst of China’s cultural revolution, this kind of ‘backward thinking’ was frowned upon, and he was sent to work as a rice planter on a government commune.
That, however, had very little effect on his affinity for music. He created his own ramshackle musical group, utilizing peasants in the village and playing whatever they could, sometimes just banging on pots and pans. It was from these peasants that he began to learn to play traditional Chinese string instruments.
His escape from the commune came in the form of a government sponsored touring company of the Peking opera. When a ferry full of performers capsized near the commune, killing several of them, Tan was employed by the troupe and left the commune.
From there he went to the China Conservatory of Music, and studied with musicians like Toru Takemitsu, who strongly influenced his musicianship, and his sense of musical style.
In 1985, he moved to New York City as a doctoral student at Columbia University, studying composition with Chou Wen-chung, who had studied with and assisted the composer Edgard Varèse.
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