Tona Scherchen

Tona Scherchen, born 1938 in Switzerland, is the first composer who brought Chinese elements into European avant-garde art music. After spending her early years in China with her mother, composer Xiao Shuxian, she returned to Europe to be with her father Hermann Scherchen in order to pursue further music education, that was the year 1956, just a year before China fell into political chaos. Very soon after the 1960s Tona Scherchen had become an active composer, titles of her music were frequently seen in contemporary music programs.