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I am a full-time cat lover,
and I compose sometimes.

Latest News

Bailey Merlin interviewing Yangfan Xu ​​
ABOUT ME
I am a full-time cat lover, and I compose sometimes.

Yangfan Xu (b. 1998) holds a deep passion and love for cats. Whenever she hears a string player glissando in the upper registers, she can’t help but think of a cat's meow. In addition to her feline obsession, Xu is a Chinese-born US-based composer who comes from a musical family in Lanzhou, Gansu province, with a spoiled cat who eats better than everyone else.

Xu is a distinguished composer recognized for her innovative works and multiple prestigious awards. She is the winner of the 2023 Boston New Music Initiative Commission Competition, the 2021 Society for New Music's Israel/Pellman Award, and the 1st Prize of the 2020 Hausmann Quartet Quarantine Composition Competition.

 

In 2021, she won the New Juilliard Ensemble Composition Competition, and her commissioned work "Fantastic Creatures of the Mountains and Seas" premiered at Lincoln Center with the New Juilliard Ensemble in 2022. Xu has been a Grammy voting member since 2024.

Kroma Quartet plays Yangfan Xu "Luo Jiang Yuan   A Bit Blue"
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Kroma Quartet plays Yangfan Xu "Luo Jiang Yuan A Bit Blue"

The Boston-based Kroma Quartet hails from the New England Conservatory and is composed of violinists Clayton Hancock and Arun Asthagiri, violist Nathan Emans, and cellist Sophia Knappe. Together, the four have embarked on a pursuit to realize timeless music with creativity, candor, curiosity, risk-taking, and humor. Clay takes the stage across the United States and internationally, performing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician, and he looks at music from new perspectives, reimagining classical beauty. For Arun, music is a form of self-expression that provokes. While being recognized for his chamber and solo performing, he combines his art with a passion for science and technology. Nathan has pursued chamber music intensively with mentorship from the Verona, Borromeo, Omer, and Parker string quartets and attended Tanglewood last summer. Sophia has been praised for her outstanding musicianship, working closely with members of the Borromeo Quartet and performing in Carnegie Hall as a member of the Tre Voce Piano Trio. The Kroma Quartet won NEC’s Honors Ensemble competition in the fall of 2023, which opened the door to many exciting professional and community engagements on their horizons. Notably, they have a residency with the Virginia Arts Festival this April. The month after, their work over the past year will culminate in a recital in Boston’s Jordan Hall featuring a unique program that traverses groundbreaking music from Haydn, Beethoven, and Schnittke. Outside of performing and rehearsing, the Kroma Quartet enjoys making ice cream floats, playing Nintendo Switch, and laughing with one another.
Yangfan Xu  - Jungle Sway (Jordan Hall Concert)
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Yangfan Xu - Jungle Sway (Jordan Hall Concert)

Cole Turkel, clarinet K. J. McDonald, violin Sophia Knappe, cello Shaylen Joos, harp Danial Kukuk, percussion Jungle Sway (2023) was from the Ballet "Now Listen," commissioned by the New York Choreographic Institute affiliated with the New York City Ballet, in collaboration with choreographer Shane Urton. Program Notes by the composer: (A dream on Oct. 3, 2022): I was exploring the border between grassland and jungle. The humid and sultry atmosphere of a summer night is mixed with the fragrance of nature, and the night has blurred the borderline between the grassland and the jungle that was already hazy. I saw brilliant shooting stars. Some colorful bright spots suddenly appeared on the horizon, as if the starry sky had been printed on the ground. The bright spots continued to twinkle, with shooting stars and fireworks in between. When I was fascinated, an elephant and two baby elephants suddenly pushed me to run. I didn't know what was going on, so I began running. I couldn't tell whether it was the jungle trees or the tall grass pushed away by the elephant and the baby elephants in front of me. After a while, I found a mudslide behind us. The elephants assisted me in safely reaching a small rocky mound. The elephants became exhausted. They lay down and rolled around. I thanked them for saving me by touching their heads and noses. I went to the nearby tropical rainforest to pick some leaves and dew to feed the elephants, and then I used the rest of the leaves as a quilt to cover and sleep. The jungle hotel where I used to stay, as well as the entire jungle town, had been completely destroyed, and the night had suddenly become so peaceful and quiet. I had since become a jungle wanderer. A week later, on another summer night, I was kidnapped by a group of men dressed as future cops. They put me on a cyberpunk train, and I didn’t know where we were about to go. – Yangfan Xu
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List of Compositions
Orchestral Music
  • Interstellar Zoo (2025) - orchestra  | ca. 7’

  • Orbital Oasis (2024) - orchestra | ca. 15’

3.3.3.3.,3.3.3.3., 4.3.3.1., 1 piano, 1 electric piano, 1 harp, 1 timp, 3 perc, strings

  • Bya (2021) - for orchestra | ca. 8’ 

3.3.3.3.,3.3.3.3., 4.3.3.1., 1 piano, 1 harp, 1 timp, 3 perc, strings

Premiered by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in 2023

  • Liang Si (2019-2020) - for string orchestra and percussion | ca. 11'

(No public performance) string orchestra and 3 perc​

  • Shen Hua (2018-2019) - for orchestra  | ca. 15’ 

(No public performance) 3.3.3.3.,3.3.3.3., 4.3.3.1., 1 piano, 1 harp, 1 timp, 3 perc, strings

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Events
Experience the magic of music live:

Upcoming concerts, performances, and unforgettable moments with the talent of Yangfan Xu.

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