The composer Ming Tsao writes music with a sensuality that arises out of a focus on the inherent qualities of sound – what the composer calls its “materiality” – coupled to an extreme formal rigor and a highly precise, finely-crafted compositional style. In the foreground of his music is a contemporary conception of musical lyricism, which is fractured, multi-faceted and problematized to reflect the modern experience. The influential music magazine Rondo described Ming Tsao’s music as “…a product of a highly complex thinking and virtuosic composing.”

Many of Ming Tsao’s works are the result of a critical and deep-thinking examination of the Western classical tradition as well as his serious engagement with Chinese traditional music. Increasingly, opera is the forum where Ming Tsao brings these interests together. The chamber opera Prospero’s Garden consists of two acts that are also separate works. Die Geisterinsel, commissioned by the Staatsoper Stuttgart, is a re-working of Johann Rudolph Zumsteeg’s 18th century opera on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Mirandas Atemwende, premiered in Berlin, takes Schoenberg’s Erwartung as the starting point for an exploration of language and expression that focusses on the poetry of Paul Celan and J. H Prynne. His large-scale opera Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion) is a re-working of  the Chinese Ming dynasty Kunqu opera of the same name, which will have its world premiere at the National Theatre Mannheim in 2026.

Ming Tsao has composed works for ensembles including the Arditti Quartet, ELISION Ensemble, Ensemble Ascolta, ensemble recherche, MusikFabrik, Ensemble KNM Berlin and Ensemble SurPlus and has had premieres at the Darmstadter Ferienkürse, Donaueschinger Musiktage, MaerzMusik Berlin, Wien Modern and the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik. In recent seasons, his major projects include two works for large ensemble: Refuse Collection, a reaction to the oeuvre of French filmmakers Danièle Huillet und Jean-Marie Straub; and Plus Minus, the first full realisation of Stockhausen’s open composition of the same name. In 2022, the Ensemble MusikFabrik under Emilio Pomàrico premiered Triode Variations in Cologne, a piece for 22 musicians lasting a half an hour, the recording of which was released in 2023 on the Kairos label. A second realization of Stockhausen’s Plus Minus, titled Plus or Minus, premieres in the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik Festival in 2025, with the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo and the Experimental Studio Freiburg.

Ming Tsao was born in Berkeley, California. His father emigrated from China and his mother’s parents emigrated from Austria and Sweden. He studied violin and viola before travelling to Suzhou, China, to study with the renowned Guqin (Chinese zither) performer Wu Zhao-ji. He studied composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston and Ethnomusicology at Columbia University in New York before studies in Logic, Philosophy and Mathematics. Returning to composition, he gained a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California, San Diego under Chaya Czernowin and Philippe Manoury as well as studying privately with Brian Ferneyhough. He was a Professor of Composition at Göteborg University and Visiting Professor of Composition at the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2021 for music composition.

A selection of his chamber works is collected on the portrait CD Pathology of Syntax, released by Mode Records. Kairos Music has released his works on three CDs, Die Geisterinsel, Plus Minus and Triode Variations. A fifth CD will be released in 2025 under the title Plus or Minus with the Neos label. Ming Tsao is represented worldwide by the Berlin–based karsten witt musik management. His scores are published by Edition Peters.