The Chinese composer Chen Gang, known for co-composing the seminal Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, has died. He was 91.

Chen Gang. Photo courtesy of Kroma Productions

Born in 1935, Chen was the son of Shanghai-born songwriter and conductor Chen Gexin, with whom he first studied music. His father, trained in Western harmony, was imprisoned and later killed at the age of 46 amongst the Chinese Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist Campaign and its rejection of popular music.

Between 1955 to 1959, Chen was a student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music; in his final year at the age of 24, Chen was selected to co-compose the Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto with fellow student He Zhanhao. Writing over six months, Chen contributed to the work’s development, while He wrote the opening theme.

The Concerto traces explores one of China’s most important folk legends about two ill-fated young lovers torn away from each other,  re-united in death as butterflies. The work melds together both Chinese and Western influences; it uses the Erhu and Pipa, transposes traditional instrumental techniques onto the violin, and borrows melodies and expressive techniques from Chinese opera while also utilising Western harmony and form.

The work was premiered at Shanghai’s Lyceum Theatre in 1959; and much like the works of his father, was banned during the Cultural Revolution between 1966–76 for “harboring anti-party poison”. It was revived in 1978, and later achieved international success. It went onto earn a Platinum Record Prize and five Golden Record Prizes in China.

Chen’s body of work includes a suite of violin miniatures titled The Red Violin, the zheng concerto Dream of the Red Chamber, the symphonic poem Eternal Sorrow and Symphonic Overture: Blossoming, composed at the age of 90. He also composed China’s first Oboe Concerto, Nang Ma in 1985; the work received its US premiere in 2025.

Chen was a Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Butterfly Lovers was performed in Sydney and Melbourne on 18 and 19 July by the China National Opera.