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.
Yan Liang
Yan Liang — Composer
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.
Her ongoing Nigredo cycle explores the blackening stage of alchemy through subtle and restrained processes of transformation.
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 Radically Relational Futures Fellowship and impuls Academy.
In 2026, she was a finalist in both Petites Formes — TPMC / IRCAM and the 4th MusicON International Composition Competition.
Selected Works
- Nigredo VII: Till the Water Be Made Black (2026) — for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano; premiered by Quasars Ensemble at the 2026 Sounds of Now Vienna Festival.
- Nigredo VI: Chromatic Black (2026) — for violin, cello, and piano; premiered at Tuckamore and performed and recorded by Trio Kanon at highSCORE.
- Nigredo V: Black Sun Escape (2026) — for string quartet; premiered by Quatuor Mémoire and selected for the MusicON International Composition Competition world tour.
- Nigredo IV: Noonday Demon (2025) — for clarinet, oboe, alto saxophone, bassoon, and bass clarinet; premiered by 5ilience Ensemble.
- rituals in the blue room (2026) — electroacoustic and transdisciplinary participatory work presented at Time of Music Festival.
- Ritual Liminality (2025) — electroacoustic work selected for Petites Formes 2026 — TPMC / IRCAM.
- In Mirror, In Nigredo, In Ineffability Topos II (2025) — for violin, saxophone, and piano; premiered by Off-Topic Ensemble.
- Coiled Within (2025) — for cello, accordion, and percussion; premiered at the .abeceda Contemporary Music Festival in Slovenia.
For concise orientation, this page offers a brief index of biography, selected works, and contact pathways.