Title: Differences Within Oneness
Commission: 2005
Completed: 2008
Instrumentation: string quartet
Premiere Location:
Premiere Ensemble:
Notes: Dedicated to Irvine Arditti.

Described in publications such as Washington Post, Gramophone, San Francisco Examiner, Charleston Post and Courier, and The Boston Intelligencer as “ceaselessly compelling,” “exceptional beauty and imagination,” “a hybrid sonic labyrinth,” and “beautiful and haunting and thought-provoking,” and praised for its “21st century sensibilities,” Kui Dong’s music has been performed and commissioned by numerous ensembles and has received honors and prizes from a wide spectrum of prestigious institutions, including the Central Ballet Group of China, The Orchestra and Chorus of the National Performing Art Center of China, Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television, Japan’s Public Interest Incorporated Foundation and Fukuyama Arts Foundation, Spain’s Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Austria’s Ars Electronica, The Tanglewood Music Center and Festival, Nancy Karp Dance company, the Arditti Quartet, Del Sol Quartet, Volti, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Melody of China, the USA Commissioning Award, The IDEA Grants from the National Opera Center, The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Meet the Composer, ISCM, and ASCAP.

Dong’s compositions span diverse genres and styles and include ballet, orchestral and chamber works, chorus, electro-acoustic music, film scores, multi-media art, and free improvisation. Her works written in the United States increasingly show a unique synthesis of influences from avant-garde experimental, jazz, and other ethnic music, and at the same time maintain a profound respect to Western classical music and a deep cultural connection with her roots. She sometimes incorporates theatre, as well as Chinese and non-western instruments and musical concepts into contemporary settings.