“Writer and expert on the classical music industry in China”
– New York Times
Award-winning and best-selling critic Rudolph Tang (唐若甫) is a reporter for Musical America based in Shanghai, member of the Society for Musical Criticism of China since 2018, chair of the Ginastera International Society’s China branch. He has covered topics on classical music and opera since 2000.
While studying English linguistics and literature at Tongji University in Shanghai, he dedicated his time as a non-staff writer for Music Lover magazine (音樂愛好者) published by Shanghai Music Publishing House and Philharmonic magazine (愛樂雜誌) published by SDX Publishing Company in Beijing.
Subsequently, he has delivered some 1,200 articles, among them dozens of most read stories behind a paywall, as press trips have taken him to over 100 destinations in more than 35 countries, covering a rich tapestry of events for major Chinese and international publications, sharing his live experiences of premieres, new productions, competitions and festivals, notably the Salzburg Festival, Aix-en-provence, Lucerne Festival, Tippet Rise, Tchaikovsky Competition, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, Thailand Int’l Composition Festival and Tokyo Int’l Conducting Competition, with his global audience.
Two years after graduation from college, he joined the Chinese editorial team of Gramophone magazine in Beijing, initially as assistant editor and Editor since early 2006. He served as a jury member of the MIDEM Classical Awards in 2008.
From 2008 to 2013, he was the head of research on orchestras’ business model and management pattern for the China Symphony Development Foundation as well as the Alliance of Asia-Pacific Region Orchestras. In 1999, he founded the independent news network KLASSIKOM, and expanded it to SNS in 2014. It has been dubbed as the Al Jazeera of classical music journalism.
Other than KLASSIKOM across all platforms, his contributions could be found on das Orchester, The Podium, VAN, Operawire, Symphony, Auditorium, FT Chinese, China Daily, GQ, Noblesse, Tatler, and Slipped Disc. He was a frequent guest of both Music Radio Beijing and Shanghai, as well as international conventions of MIDEM, ABO, LAO, FIM-IOC, EMC-IMC, ISCM-WMD, ISPA, IAMA, C:N, PEARLE*, FACP, AAPRO.
His first book The Many Faces of Musicians in China, a collection of music criticism and journalism since 2005, was published by Beijing Normal University Press in September 2014. He was the co-author of China Creative Digest 2014 & 2015 published by the Ministry of Culture China. A native of Shanghai, he is on the nominating committee of Classical: NEXT’s Innovation Awards. Other than writing, he is a guest lecturer at conservatories in Shanghai, Nanning, Hangzhou and Shinagawa.
In November 2024, he was honoured with the Pioneering Critic Award by Music Lover magazine for his “pioneering criticism and uncompromising news report”.
