Born in 1956 in Chongqing, China. He studied at the Central Conservatoire of Music in Beijing, where he was later head of the composition department and where he still remains on the faculty. He is the only Chinese composer of international renown who has never resided abroad (except for a brief stay in New York on an Asian Cultural Council grant). His compositions have been performed at festivals in Amsterdam, Berlin, Glasgow, Paris, Edinburgh, New York, Aspen, London, Turin, Perth, Huddersfield, Hong Kong, and Warsaw, and at venues such as the Frankfurt Opera, Berlin Konzerthaus, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and New York’s Lincoln Center. He has written works for distinguished ensembles such as the Nieuw Ensemble, Atlas Ensemble, Cincinnati Percussion Group, Kronos Quartet, Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble Modern, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Singapore Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic.
His music first became internationally known in 1983, when Suspended Ancient Coffins on the Cliffs of Sichuan was premiered in Berkeley, California. The piece was a tribute to Béla Bartók, whose style is echoed in the parts of two solo pianos and percussion, but the strong imprint of Guo’s own Sichuanese roots is unmistakable in the orchestral writing.
Guo’s catalogue includes chamber operas: Wolf Cub Village, Night Banquet, and Fengyiting. The former, based on Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman, was premiered at the Holland Festival. After a subsequent performance in Paris, Le Monde compared his “masterpiece of madness” to Berg’s Wozzeck and Shostakovich’s The Nose. Night Banquet, on the other hand, was inspired by a painting representing the Song dynasty court official Han Xizai, and was first produced at the Almeida Theatre in London and then at the Hong Kong Arts Festival. A second version of the work, Ye Yan/The Night of the Banquet, premiered at the Paris Autumn Festival, was also shown in Berlin, in New York at the Lincoln Center, and in Perth. In October 2003, both Wolf Cub Village and Ye Yan/The Night of the Banquet had their Chinese premieres at the 6th Beijing Music Festival, directed by Lin Zhaohua.
Critics from many countries have responded to Guo’s “unparalleled musical beauty and dramatic power” (Le Monde), and found his work “pungent and vivid” (The Guardian), “uninhibited and pure” (Het Parool), and “subtle and unusual” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). He has also been credited with “a highly original sense of operatic possibility” (The Independent). Guo Wenjing has been honoured among the Top Hundred Outstanding Artists of China.

Major works: She Huo for 11 performers (1991), Wolf Cub Village, chamber opera (1994), Drama, percussion trio (1995), Late Spring, septet for Chinese ensemble (1995), Inscriptions on Bone for alto and 15 instruments (1996), Elegy for soprano and three percussionists (1996), Concertino for cello and ensemble (1996), String Quartet no. 2 with percussion (1997–2003), Echoes of Heaven and Earth for a cappella choir and percussion (1998), String Quartet no. 3 with Chinese bamboo flute (1999), Vimala for eight cellos (2000), Concerto for Harp, Lyric Soprano and Chamber Orchestra on Haizi’s poem By Spring (2001), Sound from Tibet for winds (2001), Night Banquet, chamber opera (1997–2001), Parade for three percussionists (2004), Fengyiting, chamber opera (2004), Journeys (Yuan You) for soprano and orchestra, to words by Chuan Xi (2004), Concerto for Erhu (2007), Poet Li Bai, opera (2007), Concerto for zheng (2011), shèxì for violin and ensemble (2013), music for films, TV shows, stage music (including for the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2008).