Dongyang Lu is a composer and pianist. He was born in China and started learning piano when he was 11 years old. He started writing music when he was in college –Tianjin Conservatory. His works that were written during his time at the conservatory were not published and most of the scores were not preserved. After he went to the U.S., he joined ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) and started to publish his new works. His Prelude in C Minor that was written for piano solo, premiered on April 29, 2017, in the First Presbyterian Church in Lawrence, Kansas (U.S.). It was also performed in Swarthout Recital Hall at the University of Kansas on October 10, 2017. His classical guitar piece The Summer I Met You, written for guitar solo, was premiered in Swarthout Recital Hall by Brent Ferguson, a guitar professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas (U.S.). Lu has also written an small ensemble piece for nine instruments –Balls in the City– inspired by the commercial of Sony BRAVIA bouncy balls. His large ensemble work –Chamber Symphony in E Major –features his romantic and film-soundtrack style. It was finished in November 2017, and was written in three movements for a Chamber Orchestra.

Lu is currently studying composition with Dr. Bryan Kip Haaheim, Director of the Division of Music Theory & Music Composition. He also studies piano performance with Dr. Scott McBride Smith, Cordelia Brown Murphy Professor of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Kansas and President of the Music Teachers National Association.

Lu’s music has a strong sense of a romantic style. As he describes himself, he is influenced by the Romantic and late Romantic music, film music, and popular music. Because of his piano performance experience, and his study of many works of Romantic composers such as Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff etc., he often includes piano with its virtuoso techniques in his compositions.

As a pianist, Lu earned his B.A. degree in piano performance from Tianjin Conservatory of Music (China), studying piano performance with Wei Li, the head of the conservatory’s teaching and research section. Now he is pursuing his Master’s degree in piano performance atthe University of Kansas (U.S.). As a part of his piano performance study, he has participated in many classical music festivals and master classes. The maestros he had lessons with included teachers from Manhattan School of Music (U.S.), Mannes School of Music (U.S.), the University of California (U.S.), the University of Southern California (U.S.), the University of Northern Colorado (U.S.), and Mussorgsky Conservatory of Music (Russia). He has performed recitals in Changzhi, Shanxi Province (China), Tianjin Grand Theater and Tianjin Conservatory of Music inTianjin (China), Swarthout Recital Hall at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas (U.S.), and Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas (U.S.). He won first place in the Kansas Music Teachers Association competition at the graduate level in November 2016. In 2013, he won the third prize at Tianjin Sixth Piano Competition.