Dialogues @ the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)

Composers Now announces the 24th edition of Dialogues, in partnership with Museum of Chinese in America, the organization’s signature performance‑and‑conversation series hosted by Founding Artistic Director and Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León.

The event will take place on May 29, 2026, at 7 PM in the Museum of Chinese in America, located at 215 Centre Street.

This installment of Dialogues features three dynamic composer‑performers: Jing Zhou, Weiyang Ding, and Sophia Kunxu Dou.

Rooted in the series’ guiding values—LISTEN. COMMUNICATE. RELATE.—Dialogues invites audiences into an intimate artistic exchange. Each program begins with live performances and unfolds into a town hall–style conversation, creating a rare forum where composers, performers, and community members engage directly with one another.

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Jing Zhou is a composer and guzheng performer. She fuses new and bold musical ideas with her traditional Chinese musical heritage to create a distinct compositional style. She recently finished her DMA in composition at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, where she studied with Zhou Long, James Mobberley and Chen Yi. Previously, Zhou completed her Master’s in Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music and her Bachelor’s in Composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Weiyang Ding is a New York–based composer and multidisciplinary artist fascinated by everyday absurdities. Her music explores the balance between comedy-driven playfulness and the beauty of seriousness, as well as the physicality of performers, through a range of mediums including acoustic instruments, electronics, and theater. She holds a Master’s degree in Composition from the Mannes School of Music and aBachelor’s degree in Architecture, and is currently pursuing a post-master’s diploma at Mannes.‍

Sophia Kunxu Dou is currently studying composition under Valerie Coleman at Juilliard and studied with Daniel Felsenfeld at Juilliard Pre-College. She is a winner of 2023 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, The American Prize in Composition–Orchestra 2024 and The 2025 Composers Now First Commission Awards, a two-time finalist of National Young Composers Challenge and The American Prize in Composition–Chamber, and a three-time recipient of Luna Composition Lab honorable mention. She has been a member of the New York Youth Symphony since 2022. She was selected for Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Yellow Barn and Dolphins Quartet Young Artists Composition Programs, and was appointed a From the Top Fellow.

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