Stephen DydoStephen Dydo is a composer, guitarist, and master of the Chinese qin. He has written for virtually all musical media. His compositions include vocal and choral works, as well as various combinations of instrumental and electronic media. He has recenty written a number of pieces for Asian musicians using 8th century sources; these have been performed in New York, Cambridge, Berlin, Taipei and London. He was a featured guqin soloist in the Jiangsu Qin Conference in 2002 in Suzhou and has performed in many solo concerts in New York, and at the Sevenoaks Music Festival in England; in 2006, he presented his creation, the electric qin, in performance in Beijing. In 2000 he cofounded the New York Qin Society, of which he was president from 2005 to 2015. At the same time, interest in the music and culture of the Himalayas brought him twice to Ladakh (the Indian part of Tibet), where he gathered recordings of traditional musicians which are commercially distributed. In the US, he is involved with a Buddhist center in Connecticut and worked with Western Connecticut State University in Danbury to bring the Dalai Lama there in 2012. This served as a catalyst for the creation of the Center for Compassion, Creativity and Innovation, where he serves on the Governing Board. Recently, he has collaborated with the English artist Susan Haire on a number of large-scale multimedia projects, all involving music unfolding in space as well as time: One, riverrun, at the Hammond Museum in New York, was a reflection on the power of water; another, La vita nuova, developed themes from Dante's work. Ten thousand currents showed for six months in 2009 in Maidstone, Kent. In 2010 they mounted two shows in the Netherlands, at the OutLINE Amsterdam and the International Water House in The Hague. Spring 2012 saw their 15-installation show Reflection occupying the entire cathedral at Peterborough, UK for two months; a smaller version was created for the visit of the Dalai Lama to Western Connecticut State University in Danbury three months later. The premiere of As Above, so Below at the 2014 Borealis Festival in Bergen has been followed by presentations at SEAMUS 2015 and NYCEMF. His awards include the Bearns Prize and a BMI award. He developed computer music in Utrecht for two years under a Fulbright grant, and has received fellowships from Weir Farm, Meet the Composer and the Composers Conference. He studied at Columbia University, where he received a doctorate in composition. Read More Read Less