Yan Liang

Yan Liang is a composer whose work explores ritual, mysticism, alchemical symbolism, and the thresholds where sound behaves as trace, omen, residue, or invocation.

Toward things only approachable by negation and paradox.

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As above, so below

Selected Works

Pink artwork with overlapping ink figures — Yan Liang

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Closing in, in retroactivity

Solo violin · 2026

Closing in, in retroactivity, epigraph page

Closing in, in retroactivity, performance instructions

Closing in, in retroactivity, score page 1

Closing in, in retroactivity, score page 2

And

Gennaio, from the Parma Baptistery, as shown on Yan Liang’s artist website — Gennaio,
Public domain. Source: Parma Baptistery

0:00 / 8:20

Nigredo VII :Until the Water Be Made Black

Flute, violin, cello, and piano · 2026

Nigredo VII: Until the Water Be Made Black, score sample 1

Nigredo VII: Until the Water Be Made Black, score sample 2

Nigredo VII: Until the Water Be Made Black, score sample 3

Nigredo VII: Until the Water Be Made Black, score sample 4

Selected Works

Concise works index

Nigredo VII: Until the Water Be Made Black (2026) — For flute, (clarinet), violin, cello, and piano (8 mins)
Nigredo VI: Chromatic Black (2026) — For violin, cello, and piano (9 mins)
Nigredo V: Black Sun Escape (2026) — For string quartet (7 mins)
Nigredo IV: Noonday Demon (2025) — For clarinet, oboe, alto saxophone, bassoon, and bass clarinet (5 mins)
rituals in the blue room (2026) — Electroacoustic and transdisciplinary participatory work
Ritual Liminality (2025) — Electroacoustic work
In Mirror, In Nigredo, In Ineffability Topos II (2025) — For violin, saxophone, and piano
In Mirror, In Nigredo, In Ineffability Topos (2024) — For violin, saxophone, and piano
Coiled Within (2024) — For cello, accordion, and percussion

Yan Liang is a Montréal-based composer working across instrumental, electroacoustic, and transdisciplinary practices, while concentrating on chamber music.

Her work engages ritual, mysticism, alchemical symbolism, and perceptual liminality, among which her ongoing Nigredo cycle explores the blackening stage of alchemy through subtle and restrained processes of transformation.

Blue-toned oil painting by Yan Liang, first framing — Hush—

Blue-toned oil painting by Yan Liang, second framing — Whisper—

Blue-toned oil painting by Yan Liang, third framing — A language of silence—

Liang works with her mentor Philippe Leroux at McGill. Her music has been presented across North America and Europe at festivals including Time of Music, Sounds of Now Vienna, highSCORE, .abeceda, Tuckamore, and Le Vivier, by artists like Quasars Ensemble, Quatuor Mémoire, Trio Kanon, 5ilience, and Off-Topic, with forthcoming projects with individual artists, the Ensemble Cairn, and impuls Academy.

In 2026, her work was selected for Petites Formes — TPMC / IRCAM, and Nigredo V: Black Sun Escape was a finalist in the 4th MusicON International Composition Competition.

Complete Biography

The art of effective dreaming
for metaphysical minds.

Don't be afraid to claim mysticism.

Selected Works

Closing in, in retroactivity

Nigredo VII :Until the Water Be Made Black

Short Biography

Oil painting by Yan Liang