Overview
Han Xu 许瀚 (b 1989, Beijing China) is a composer, sound artist, and improviser who has gained a great deal of inspiration from Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist Philosophy.
Han Xu is currently a doctoral student at Cornell University, where he studied with Marianthi Papaleandri-Alexandri, Kevin Ernste, and Trevor J. Pinch. In 2008, he began studying music at the Communication University of China in Beijing and, in 2017, he finished a music masters degree in composition (graduating with distinction) from the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) Manchester, the UK, where he studied with Adam Gorb and Emily Howard. He also attended masterclasses of Colin Matthews, Louis Andriessen, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Brian Ferneyhough, Paul Patterson, Simon Bainbridge, Gary Carpenter, David Horne, Anders Hillborg, Tonia Ko, and Nicolas Collins.
Han has been supported by scholarships from RNCM School of Composition, RNCM School of Wind, Brass and Percussion, Peking University Resource Group (exhibition for his sound installation), and was also the recipient of the British Composer Arnold Cooke Award and London Symphony Orchestra Bursary.
In the 2016-2017 season, Han undertook fieldwork research on Buddhist culture in Tibet and Dunhuang city. His piece Étude No.5 Cyber Buddha for Electronic, Chanting, and Virtual Spatial Installation was commissioned by the Buddha’s Light International Association of Master Hsing Yun and Cornell Electroacoustic Music Center in 2020. Both of his sound art pieces Blind Opera for practitioners wearing bending eyeless masks and Étude No. 7 for Two Practitioner, Video Feedback and Disassembled Trombone was premiered at Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium in 2020. Han’s Installation Art Buddha Holds the Flower for Buddhist Sutra Chanting of Electrical Signal was commissioned by Peking University Resource Group Art Gallery for their exhibition. He was selected by the 2017-2018 London Symphony Orchestra Panufnik Composer Scheme. His works have been performed by London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, Manchester Camerata, Tacet(i) Ensemble, RNCM Brand New Orchestra, RNCM Big Band, and RNCM Wind Orchestra.