photoed by Kimberly M. Wang

周文中

作曲家，教育家，文化使者

周文中先生是国际公认的20世纪下半叶最重要的作曲家之一。作为第一位在西方获得认可的华人作曲家，他的作品曾由世界各地的重要乐团演奏。《山水》（1949）经常被认为是第一首既独立于西方，又独立于东方音乐语法的作品。他的代表作有《花落知多少》（1954）、《谷应》（1989）等。

周文中1923年生于中国烟台一个富有文人传统的家庭。他在上海长大，其间对音乐产生兴趣并学习小提琴，但他后来决定学习更实用的土木工程和建筑专业。抗日战争时期，他来到中国西南地区，于1945年在国立重庆大学完成了土木工程学位。第二次世界大战结束后，周文中先生于1946年获得全额奖学金，前往美国学习。他先在耶鲁大学学习建筑，但一周之内改变主意，进入波士顿的新英格兰音乐学院学习。

1949年他移居纽约，随著名作曲家埃德加·瓦雷兹上私人课，同时获得哥伦比亚大学的硕士学位。1964年周先生受聘于哥伦比亚大学。经过他的努力，该校作曲系成为国际知名的作曲系。他的学生包括齐纳里·翁、周龙、陈怡、盛宗亮、谭盾和瞿小松等。周先生是一位有影响力的教育家，直到1991年退休前，他一直在哥伦比亚大学艺术学院担任重要的学术职位。

当中美重新建立外交关系时，周文中先生于1978年创办了“中美艺术交流中心”，组织了美国小提琴家艾萨克·斯特恩在中国的巡回演出。电影《从毛泽东到莫扎特》对此有所记录。他将亚瑟·米勒的话剧《推销员之死》带到中国。该中心与日本札幌太平洋音乐节的亚洲专家和机构合作（1990），开展了为期15年的中国艺术教育计划，以及云南的文化、环境保护和发展等众多项目。

周文中先生是美国艺术与文学院院士、国际当代音乐协会以及亚洲作曲家联盟荣誉会员。法国政府授予他“艺术与文学骑士”奖。

Chou Wen-chung

Composer, Educator and Cultural Ambassador

Chou Wen-chung is widely regarded as one of the most important composers of the second half of the twentieth century. The first Chinese composer to attain recognition in the West, his works have been performed by leading orchestras around the world.Landscapes(1949)is often cited as the first composition independent of either Western or Eastern musical grammar. Among his acclaimed works areAnd the Fallen Petals (1954)andEchoes from the Gorge(1989).

Chou was born in Yantai, China in 1923 to a family steeped in thewenrentradition. He was interested in music and studied the violin while growing up in Shanghai, but decided to pursue a more practical profession - civil engineering and architecture. Druing the anti-Japanese war period, he fled inland and ended up in Chongqing where he completed a degree in civil engineering from Chunking National University in 1945. At the end of World War II, Chou went to the United States (1946) with a full scholarship to study architecture at Yale University, but within a week, changed his mind and entered the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

In 1949, he moved to New York where he studied privately with the eminent composer Edgard Var`ese, while obtaining a master’s degree at Columbia University. Chou joined the faculty of Columbia in 1964 and developed its internationally known Composition Department whose graduates include Chinary Ung, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, and Qu Xiaosong. He was an influential educator, and held major academic positions in the School of Arts until his retirement in1991.

When China and US re-established diplomatic relations, Chou founded the Center for United States-China Arts Exchange in 1978, which organized Isaac Stern’s tour documented in the film “Mao to Mozart” and brought Arthur Miller’s playDeath of a Salesmanto China. The Center has collaborated with Asian specialists and institutions on the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan (1990); an arts education program in China spanning 15 years; and numerous projects for cultural preservation, and environmental conservation and development in Yunnan.

Chou is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an honorary member of the International Society for Contemporary Music and Asian Composers League, and recipient of theOfficier des Arts et Lettres.