Before Zhang attended university, he spent eight years working with the singing and dancing troupe of Changchun city in Jilin province, where he composed music and played the erhu and bassoon.

Zhang was trained by composer Wu Zuqiang. After graduation in 1983, Zhang became a teacher at the university.

"We focused on classical music studies then. It was hard to find materials about contemporary music in the library since the country was just opening-up," Zhang recalls.

After Zhang returned to China in 1994, he founded the Electro-Acoustic Music Center, which is part of the conservatory. It is the first professional institution researching modern electroacoustic music. He also founded the Beijing Electroacoustic Music Festival that same year, inviting international electronic musicians to perform in Beijing.

"It's exciting to witness and be involved in the birth of a totally new academic major," Zhang says. "From buying equipment to organizing teaching materials, we've trained students for bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees, who are now major sources of teachers of electronic music in the country."

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn