Biography

Ritual, alchemy, and the subtle violence of transformation. The music of Yan Liang grows out of literary and spiritual experience, approaching what can only be reached through negation, paradox, and ritual liminality, aiming to explore ritual, mysticism, alchemical symbolism, and the thresholds where sound behaves as trace, omen, residue, or invocation.



Her ongoing cycle Nigredo is named after the blackening stage of medieval alchemy, across the cycle, different musical situations become symbolic states, rarely in a dramatic way, as she believes the most important phase of transmutation occurs mostly in a subtle and restrained manner.

Liang is a Montreal-based composer with an additional academic background in Religious Studies and Ritual Research. With the support from her mentor Philippe Leroux, and generous scholarships, awards from McGill, Schulich School of Music, and other foundations, her music has been featured at Time of Music festival, Sounds of Now, abeceda, Tuckamore, and other festivals across Finland, France, Italy, Slovenia, Canada, and Austria. Most recently, her debut electroacoustic work, Ritual Liminality, was selected for Petites Formes 2026 (hosted by TPMC and IRCAM), performed in Paris in May 2026.

She has also worked with ensembles including Quasars ensemble, Quatuor Mémoire, Trio Kanon, 5ilience quintet, Off-Topic. Upcoming projects include a string quartet piece for Fabrik Quartet, a solo violin work for the violinist Muzi Lyu, and collaborations in the impuls Academy (Graz, Austria), scheduled for February 2027.