Liu Sola

小简介
刘索拉 —— 作曲家，人声表演家，作家。刘索拉毕业于中央音乐学院作曲系，师从于杜鸣心先生。 毕业后先后为影视戏剧作曲，曾被电影作曲金鸡奖联合提名，她的钢琴独奏作品也曾在全国钢琴创作比赛中获奖。1985年她创作了小说［你别无选择］，在全国引起轰动，曾被香港媒体称为“刘索拉旋风”。此中篇小说获全国中篇小说奖。1987年她应美国新闻总署邀请赴美访问，回国后根据同名获奖小说创作了中国第一部摇滚歌剧[蓝天绿海]。 1988年至2002年她先后定居伦敦和纽约,曾经专程去美国曼菲斯学习蓝调，93年移居纽约后又受到自由爵士大师们的直接指教， 先后在英美组织自己的乐队，在国际各大艺术节上演出自己的作品，并和世界各流派的知名艺术家广泛合作。
她的唱片[蓝调在东方]（美国宝利金唱片公司），曾被英美权威音乐杂志Billboard作为焦点聚光唱片推出，称其为“一种新流派的酝酿”， 并被列入《英美新世界音乐》排行榜前 10 名。此唱片引起众多美国媒体的关注和探讨，并称刘为“唯一有资格在新奥尔良爵士音乐节演奏的中国音乐家（纽约评论）”。随后她推出的［中国拼贴］（日本阿万德唱片公司） 由于它的“极端疯狂（周.撒克）”和“丰富有力的表现了同种文化的不同处（纽约时报）”引起了先锋音乐界的关注。随后她在美国制作了若干唱片，包括［缠］等等。 1997年，她在纽约建立了[索拉与朋友们]乐队，混合了民乐、摇滚爵士乐及新音乐的风格，这支乐队在1999年北京爵士音乐节上破土而出。2000年，刘索拉联合打击乐家李真贵先生及其弟子们在北京首图音乐厅做了民族器乐“爵士”即兴音乐会，2003年［刘索拉与朋友们乐队］以美国摇滚爵士乐家和中国民乐家的联合形式在德国新音响现代音乐节作为开幕乐队演出，引起德国媒体的关注：“刘索拉在寻求避免向西方古典音乐和流行音乐彻底投降的道路。（南德日报）”“这样的全球化完全可以对西方置之不理。（南德日报）”。 2005年后，“传统重新主宰了刘索拉。（南德日报）”， 乐队完全成为民乐队，风格特异，有“中国式的心醉神迷状态。（南德日报）”。
2006年，刘索拉创作了大型室内歌剧［惊梦］，由著名的德国现代室内乐团[ENSEMBLE MODERN]和[刘索拉与朋友们]中国乐队共同参演。她本人是编剧，作曲及总导演并领演。在歌剧中她大胆运用了“传统和现代音乐各流派及流行音乐（法兰克福评论）”， 音乐语言“惊人的清晰和紧凑 （法兰克福评论）”。 2007年， 刘索拉作为重点音乐家被丹麦环响音乐双年展邀请，丹麦皇家音院打击乐团世界首演了她的新作品［节奏的密码］，丹麦电影中心及作家协会重点介绍了她的电影音乐作品及她的文学作品，［刘索拉与朋友们］乐队的演出成为音乐节的热点。
2002年至06年，刘接受德国文化媒体部长的邀请，担任德国世界文化大厦世界顾问组成员，策划了有美国天才音乐家约翰.纵参与的［反叛者音乐家系列音乐会］、[你别无选择]中央音乐学院作曲系77届音乐会等等。［你别无选择］音乐会成为德国现代室内乐团连年世界巡演项目，曾在北京国际音乐节演出。
刘索拉近年创作的电影音乐作品包括：宁瀛的获奖电影［无穷动］（参与编剧和演出）， 吕乐的获奖电影［十三棵泡桐树］等等。
作为作家，刘索拉的作品多次获奖和被译成多国语言。 由于喜欢用不同风格的中文构造小说，英文版译文［混屯加哩咯楞］获得英国比较文学翻译奖（Richard King 译），最新的译文版是小说［女贞汤］的法文版(Sylvie Gentil 译)由法国著名出版社Seuil出版。刘索拉近年新书先后由海峡出版社，昆仑出版社，上海文汇出版社出版。
刘索拉目前定居于中国北京和美国鄂宛。
The musical traditions of China have been blended with jazz, blues, and improvisation by composer, author, and vocalist Liu Sola. Her recordings have spanned from multicultural treatments of the blues — Blues in the East, recorded with guitarist James Blood Ulmer, Parliament-Funkadelic drummer Jerome Bailey, Chinese pipa player Wu Man, avant-garde saxophonist Henry Threadgill, and vocalist Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets, and produced by Bill Laswell, to psychedelic Chinese rock, China Collage. While www.chinasprout claimed that "this is not your standard Chinese music — it is extremely contemporary with a strong multicultural influence," the New York Press referred to Sola as "the only Chinese artist who would qualify to play the New Orleans Jazz Festival." The New York Times cited her ability to "wander from echoes of Chinese opera to simple folk-like melodies."
The daughter of prominent figures in China's Communist Party, Liu spent her early life in luxury. An uncle, Liu Zhidan, was a high-ranking general in the Red Army until his death and martyrdom in 1936. Her family's fortunes changed dramatically when her father's comrade-in-arms, Gao Gang, was accused of treason by Mao Tse-Tung and sentenced to death in 1955. As the result of a scorching account of the situation written by her mother, both of her parents were exiled to a rural pig farm, where they remained for two decades. Together with her older brother and sister, Liu was raised by a family in the capital city. Music played an essential role throughout Liu's life. She began studying classical piano at the age of five. Although she also studied Peking Opera, she was drawn more to Chinese folk music. Entering the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, in 1977, she studied composition. A symphony memorializing her uncle, composed for her thesis, was performed by the Chinese Opera House Orchestra.
Graduating in 1981, Liu began writing short stories and novels. Her first novella, Ni Bie Wu Xuanze (You Have No Choice), was hailed by China's disenfranchised urban youth and won a prestigious Chinese National Novella award. Liu's first full-length novel, Chaos And All, written while she was briefly residing in London and published in 1989, was followed by Da Ji Jia De Xiao Gu Shi in January 2000. Her novella, Blue Sky Green Sea, was translated into English and performed as a rock opera in 1998 with the Chinese Central Symphony Orchestra and a rock band.
Liu has continued to explore a diverse range of music. She formed an all-female Pink Floyd-influenced rock band in the mid-'80s. She recorded a rock opera version of Blue Sky Green Sea in 1988 with the Chinese Central Symphony Orchestra, and a Hong Kong-based rock band. Moving to London later the same year, she formed a reggae band with British, Japanese, and Chinese musicians. Inspired by the music of Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin, who she first heard while visiting the United States in 1987, Liu returned to the U.S., two years later to spend time in the Mississippi Delta, meeting and playing with scores of blues musicians. She made her permanent home in the United States after being accepted into the University of Iowa's International Writing Program in 1992. Liu continued to be active as a musician and composer. Her modern dance composition, "June Snow," was featured in Michael Apted's documentary video, Moving the Mountains, in 1999. The same year, the New Julliard Ensemble performed her piece "In Corporeal" at Lincoln Center. Returning to China for the first time in a decade, Sola performed in Beijing and Shanghai and recorded an album, Sola & Friends in Beijing.