MOCA PERFORMS – Dialogues with Composers Now

General Admission: $20 | Senior & Student Admission: $15 MOCA Member Admission: $10 Tickets In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, MOCA continues its commitment as a vital platform for timely and resonant live arts, uplifting Asian American artists working across time-based disciplines, including music, theater, dance, and film. The Museum of Chinese in America is proud to partner with Composers Now to present Dialogues, a special program exploring the voices and visions of contemporary composers. Hosted by Composers Now Founder and Artistic Director Tania León, this town hall–style conversation brings together Chinese and Chinese American composers Jing Zhou, Weiyang Ding, and Sophia Kunxu Dou. Together, they will reflect on their musical journeys, artistic challenges, and creative achievements, offering insight into their evolving practices. Designed as an open and dynamic exchange, Dialogue invites meaningful and thought-provoking conversation among composers, performers, and audiences alike. The evening will begin with a performance by the featured artists, setting the stage for a rich and engaging dialogue. PROGRAM Jing Zhou: Chilly, for solo zheng Weiyang Ding: Five Mini Dramas of Human Observation, Movements IV and V, for string quartet Sophia Kunxu Dou: The Applicant, for soprano and cello ABOUT Composers Now Composers Now empowers all living composers, celebrates the diversity of their voices and honors the significance of their artistic contributions to the cultural fabric of society. Founder and artistic director Tania León leads the organization since 2010. Composers Now features a broad spectrum of performances in concert halls, jazz mobiles, opera stages, experimental spaces, conservatories, museums and other musical venues. Symphony Space served as an incubator for the development of the Composers Now Festival. The Fund for the City of New York invited Composers Now to become a project partner in 2013. Composers Now became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in May 2019. To learn more, please visit: https://www.composersnow.org/   ABOUT Tania Léon Cuban-born American composer, conductor, and educator Tania León is one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of her generation. She was the first Latin American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2021. In 2022, she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime artistic achievements. In 2023, she received the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from Northwestern University and became the first woman to be honored with the highest composition prize conferred by Spain, the XIX Premio SGAE for Iberian American Music Tomás Luis de Victoria. In 2024, she earned the Distinguished Artist Award from the International Society for the Performing Arts. And in 2025, she was the recipient of the Recording Academy’s Special Merit Award, the Trustees Award. She was also recognized by Carnegie Corporation of New York as part of their 2025 Class of Great Im...