About

Charlie Zhong is an award-winning composer based in Boston, Massachusetts. His music frequently explores themes of time, transformation, and memory; from the changing of an individual's perception by different perspectives of viewing an object, to the balancing of conflicting memories. Recently, he has been fascinated by the temporal effects of music, whether through the gradual fragmenting of melodies, or through the slow embellishment or distortion of a memory. Charlie’s music seeks to explore complex topics in a way that is accessible to audiences, yet also pushes the boundaries of unconventional sounds and techniques.

Charlie was a winner of the 2023 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards; the 1st place winner of The 2023 American Prize in Composition, music for orchestra (high school division); the winner of the 2023 DeKalb Symphony Orchestra Young Composers Competition, along with a commissioning of a new work to be premiered during the 2023-24 DeKalb Symphony Orchestra season; a winner of the 2021 National Young Composers Challenge, which included the world premiere of Like a Single Star in the Night Sky by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in 2022; an Honorable Mention in the 2023 BMI Composer Awards; and the 1st place winner of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York’s Emerging Composers Competition (2022-23). He has also been awarded the ASCAP Foundation Irving Berlin Summer Music Camp Scholarship (2022).

Charlie has studied with Tak Cheung Hui, David Hodgkins, Julien Siino, and Marco Flores-Villanueva. His works find inspiration from composers like Lei Liang, Kaija Saariaho, Gérard Grisey, and Alfred Schnittke. Some of Charlie's influences can also be found in the songs and writings of Paul Simon.

Charlie is currently a student at the Commonwealth School in Boston, and spends his summers studying music at The Walden School.

A list of all concert works can be found on the work list page

You can listen to recorded works on the recordings page

For questions, commissions, or requests for scores/parts, please access the contact page