He received a B.A. degree from Hampshire College and a M.M. from the Yale School of Music. His major teachers include Jacob Druckman, Stephen Albert, Gunther Schuller, and Isang Yun in composition, and Arthur Weisberg in conducting. Asia's works ranges from solo pieces to large-scale multi-movement works for orchestra, including five symphonies. He served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Contemporary Music and Wind Ensemble from 1981 to 1986. In 1986–88, a UK Fulbright Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship enabled him to work in London as a visiting lecturer at City University. Since 1988, he has been Professor of Composition and head of the composition department at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He conducts the New York-based contemporary chamber ensemble The Musical Elements, which he co-founded in 1977. Asia founded and directs the American Culture and Ideas Initiative. As a blogger, Asia contributes articles on music and culture to The Huffington Post. In 2013, he gained notoriety after receiving international responses for an April 25 article entitled "Carter is Dead."
Awards
From 1991-1994, Asia was the Meet the Composer/Composer In Residence with the Phoenix Symphony. He has been the recipient of a Meet The Composer/Reader's Digest Consortium Commission, United Kingdom Fulbright Arts Award Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, four NEA Composers Grants, a M. B. Rockefeller Grant, an Aaron Copland Fund for Music Grant, MacDowell Colony and Tanglewood Fellowships, ASCAP and BMI composition prizes, and a DAAD Fellowship for study in the Federal Republic of Germany. Asia is the 2010 recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters award.
Works
1973 – Sound Shapes, for SSAATTBB chorus and pitch pipes
1974–75 – On the Surface, for soprano, piano, harp, cello, and percussion
1975 – Dream Sequence I, for amplified trombone
1975 – Piano Set I for solo piano
1976 – Piano Set II for two pianos
1976 – String Quartet No. 1
1976 – Miles Mix, for tape
1978 – Why Jacob for chorus and piano
1979 – Orange, for viola
1980–81 – Rivalries, for chamber orchestra
1983 – Why Jacob for solo piano
1984 – Three Movements, for trumpet and orchestra
1985 – String Quartet No. 2
1987 – Scherzo Sonata for solo piano
1987 – Symphony No. 1
1988 – B for J, for flute, bass clarinet, trombone, vibraphone, electric organ, violin, viola, and cello
1989 – Quartet for piano, violin, viola, and cello
