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The Chinese choral conductor, Wenhao Mu, acquired both baccalaureate and master’s degrees in Engineering in Urban Planning and worked as an architect for three years. He also served as the associate conductor of the Peiyang Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Tianjin University, China. He traveled to the USA in 2013 to participate in a choral-directing conference. The trip, which had been arranged by a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, included a visit to Utah to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and work with BYU’s Ronald J. Staheli and the BYU Singers. “The sound of the BYU choirs, the beautiful campus, and the choral activities in Utah associated with the Church - it seemed like an ideal place for doing choral music,” said Mu. When the BYU Singers toured China in 2015, Mu and his wife, Wenjing She attended a performance. Again impressed, Mu dropped his architectural studies and applied to BYU’s graduate choral-directing program. The decision would immerse Mu and She in what they now call “the BYU way” of studying music. He graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah with the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting in April 2019.
In February 2019, Wenhao Mu was the only Chinese candidate listed on the “Jury’s Top-30 List” of the 2019 World Choral Conducting Competition (Hong Kong). As the graduate assistant conductor and a singer in baritone section, he toured with the BYU Singers in Indonesia and Vietnam in May 2018 and has performed with Tenebrae under Maestro Nigel Short and The Tallis Scholars with Maestro Peter Phillips. In May 2017, he studied in London for three weeks as part of the Study Abroad Program “English Choral Music: Past and Present” of BYU Choral Department, during which time he attended rehearsals, evensongs, and concerts of many wonderful choral ensembles including but not limited to The Sixteen (Director: Harry Christophers), Trinity College Choir of Cambridge, Tenebrae.
Wenhao Mu is enthusiastic in sharing his knowledge, which he obtained in the Western worlds, with students and colleagues in China. He serves as a bridge between Western choral world and that of the Chinese choral society. As an active as guest conductor and lecturer throughout China, he has directed more than forty Chinese choirs including the Lily Choir of Shenzhen High School and Southern China Normal University Women’s Choir and Mixed Choir. He delivered lectures in many choral festivals in China including but not limited to the 12th China International Chorus Festival & International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) World Youth Choral Education Conference in 2014, Xi’an International Choral Festival and China Qiandongnan International Folk Song Choral Festival in 2017. As an interpreter, he had worked with distinguished conductors such as Maria Guinand, Jo-Michael Scheibe, Theodora Pavlovitch, Joy Hill and many more, translating their master-classes for Chinese audiences. Furthermore, he translated, with his wife, Alberto Grau’s book Choir Conductor: The Forging of a Conductor, and the chapter “The Middle Age” in the book The Definitive Visual History of Music by DK Publishing. He also helped Dr. Lei Ray Yu from Boston University in preparing the lecture The Comprehensive Conductor which was held in China in 2018. He was awarded the “Ambassador of 2017” by IFCM.
Wenhau Mu studies for his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester since 2019. He passed the qualifying examination in June 2022. At Eastman, he is Teaching Assistant (since August 2019). He also participated as a conductor in Eastman School of Music: Bach Cantata Series (BWV 30, BWV 35). He currently lives in Rochester, New York. |
