UC San Diego is honoring the legacy of composer and cultural ambassador Chou Wen-chung with two special events in February. On Wednesday, February 18, 2026, percussionist Steven Schick’s red fish blue fish performs this year’s Chou Commission Concert, featuring newly…

As we reflect on 2025, shaped by the legacy of Chou Wen-chung following the Centennial celebrations, the Chou family and the Spiralis Music Trust would like to express their sincere thanks to composer Lei Liang, who stepped down as Trustee…

The Chou Wen-chung Centennial Concert, recorded live at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre on March 21, 2024, is now available for viewing. First webcast on October 13, 2024, with a live Zoom Q&A, this video features five works composed by Chou Wen-Chung, including…

The Chou family and the Spiralis Trust are inviting listeners around the globe to register for free via this Zoom link to attend the worldwide video broadcast premiere of this spring’s Chou Wen-Chung Centennial Concert at Columbia University, beginning at 2…

The Chinese-born composer Chou Wen-chung (1923–2019) had an enormous influence on concert music in America and was responsible for bringing over the next generation of musicians from China, including Tan Dun, Pulitzer Prize winner Zhou Long, Chen Yi and Bright…

In October of 2019, the great Chinese American composer, Chou Wen-chung died at age 96. He was many things: a role model for a new generation of Asian American composers, the assistant and protégé of the experimentalist Edgard Varèse and…

Chou Wen-chung—composer, teacher, visionary and leader in cultural exchange—passed away in his New York City home at the age of 96 on October 25, 2019. Chou had multiple simultaneous illustrious careers. As student and protégé of, and later executor to…

Chou Wen-chung was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from New England Conservatory on February 27, 2019. The composer entered NEC in 1946 upon arriving in the U.S. from Shanghai and studied composition under Nicholas Slonimsky. Conservatory President Andrea Kalyn conferred…

Esteemed composer Chou Wen-chung, known for his works that synthesize Western composition with traditional Chinese music, was presented with an honorary doctorate by NEC President Andrea Kalyn at his home in New York on February 27, 2019.

Sponsored by the Spiralis Music Trust, this 25-minute documentary traces the extraordinary life of Chou Wen-chung, the first Chinese composer to achieve recognition in the West. He came to the U.S. in 1946, studied with the composer, Edgard Varèse and…