Philosophical soul music

Tan's music works have won him worldwide acclaim. Many people know the composer from his soundtrack in film director Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which Tan won an Academy Award for best score in 2001. He has scored music for global events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is the first composer commissioned by Google and YouTube to write the Internet Symphony No 1.

In January, Tan conducted the UK premiere of his epic work, Buddha Passion, at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The monumental work, which is a result of the composer's multiple trips to Dunhuang, Northwest China's Gansu province, to study and document the Mogao Caves, involves choirs, a large orchestra, six percussionists and an array of soloists, including indigenous singers, traditional Chinese instrumentalists, such as a pipa player. The recording of Buddha Passion will be released by Decca Classics on April 7.

The world premiere of a recording of Tan's The Tears of Nature will follow in September. Also a release by Decca Classics, the 25-minute percussion concerto was written after three major natural disasters: the Wenchuan earthquake in Southwest China's Sichuan province in 2008, the tsunami in Japan in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy, which caused significant damage in the United States in 2012, all of which personally affected Tan.

The Tears of Nature displays the composer's reflection on the relationship between human beings and nature. Emotions like sadness, warmth and compassion are on the album.

"I was born and grew up in a small village in Hunan province. I was a barefoot, wild child running around. Nature is close to me and I always respect and admire its power," says Tan, who is keen on making music with nature, from water to paper, stone, and metal.