Biography
Qigang Chen (Chinese: 陈其钢; family name: Chen; born: 1951 in Shanghai) is a Chinese-born composer, currently living in France, having obtained French citizenship in 1992. He started learning music from childhood. At the time when Cultural Revolution broke out in China, he was studying at the Music Middle School of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. His father, administrator of the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, famous calligrapher and painter, was immediately judged "bourgeois", "antirevolutionary", and sent to a labor camp. As for him young Qigang Chen was kept in confinement during three years and underwent "ideological re-education". Yet his passion for music remained unwavering: he went on learning composition and scoring in spite of social and political anti-cultural pressure.
In 1977, Chinese government re-established the system of contest for entering upper schools. That year, Qigang Chen was one of the 26 candidates among two thousands passing successfully the entry examination of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. From 1978 to 1983 he followed a training on composition with Luo Zhonghong. In 1983, he was the first nominee at the National postgraduate contest and thus got the opportunity to go abroad and carry on a Master's degree. And that was how he discovered France.
From 1984 to 1988 he received a state grant and studied with Olivier Messiaen. He simultaneously worked with Ivo Malec, Betsy Jolas, Claude Ballif and Claude Castérède. In 1987, he followed a training session for composer at the IRCAM as well as a musical composition training at the Academia chigiana in Siena with Donatoni. In 1988, he obtained the Diplome supérieur de Composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique, unanimously and with the congratulations of the jury. In 1989, he obtained the Diplome de Musicologie at the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne with grade very good.
Chen has composed various soundtracks for feature films, such as "Coming Home" (2014) and "The Flowers Of War" (2011), both directed by Zhang Yimou.
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