Yuhan Su 蘇郁涵, Vibraphonist, Marimbist, Composer
爵士鐵琴演奏家蘇郁涵，現為活躍在美國紐約的爵士演奏家， 蘇郁涵傑出的藝術表現與才華，一出道即受到爵士薩克斯風大師 Greg Osby 賞識，邀請成為旗下紐約唱片品牌 Inner Circle Music 的音樂家，同時也獲選為美國 Alternate Mode 公司 MalletKAT 電子打擊鍵盤的代言人 。蘇郁涵自2012年秋天推出個人首張全創作爵士專輯「孤獨飛行」後，在國內外均獲得極大的迴響，美國爵士樂指標性雜誌DOWNBEAT樂評給予高度評價 「作品展露了洋溢的才華、感性及難以忘懷的柔美」，爵士樂評網站 All About Jazz稱其為當代爵士樂壇極具潛力的的新星，並將其專輯評選為年度最佳專輯之一。「孤獨飛行」專輯於2013年第四屆金音創作獎獲得三項提名，並且拿下 「最佳爵士專輯」和「最佳新人」兩項大奬，並且在第24屆金曲獎，也榮獲「年度最佳演奏類專輯」與「最佳作曲人」兩項提名。畢業於美國知名爵士音樂學府 Berklee College of Music，以及國立台北藝術大學管絃與擊樂研究所，其音樂作品優雅感性，如詩般帶著令人難以忘懷的柔美，精湛的即興演奏創造了多采多姿令人目眩神迷的聲 響，承接了西方的古典和現代音樂，也融合了來自東方的亞洲音樂元素。(http://www.taiwanembassy.org/ct.asp?xItem=516211&ctNode=965&mp=136)
In many ways, Yuhan Su represents the voice of the new generation of jazz musicians. Though she is firmly rooted in jazz tradition, her music is innovative, emotional, cerebral and most importantly, always lyrical. Her compositions and improvisations are uniquely hers, marked with an amalgamation of complexity, intensity and emotional resonance. And though she is capable of blistering technique, she always maintains a sense of melodic lyricism and wonder in her playing.
“It’s been a pretty wild music journey. From learning J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schuman..’s music by playing piano, and getting highly inspired by Ravel, Debussy, Bela Bartok by studying composition, until my percussion study in the university and graduate school, John Cage, Steve Reich, Iannis Xenakis, Keiko Abe, Minoru Miki.. a lot of great contemporary composers’ music walks into my ear. And after all this, it’s jazz! Jazz is like a conclusion for me. I mean I got to learn the skill to conclude things and then develop it in my own way. It’s hard to explain the genre and style, but I just need to non-stop write and play. Let all this energy transform to something from here. Let imagination go farer and farer.” Yuhan said.
Yuhan Su, a native of Taiwan, had her first exposure to music when she started learning the piano at the young age of seven. She developed a passion for percussion at the age of ten and while keeping up her classical piano studies. In 2001, Yuhan entered the Taipei National University of Arts, majoring in Percussion, and graduated in 2005 with a Bachelors’ Degree in Music. She continued to pursue her musical studies and in 2008, graduated with a Masters in Music, majoring in Percussion from the same university.
In 2001-2003, Yuhan joined the Ju Percussion Group II and performed throughout Taiwan. She also held several percussion recitals during the years when she studied at the Taipei National University of Arts. In 2005, she was invited to perform in Seoul, Korea as a member of TNUA percussion ensemble. In 2006, she collaborated with a media artist and received the First Prize in Live Performance in Digital Art Awards.
Yuhan devoted herself to writing original songs using the traditional dialect of her country and in 2007, won First Prize with her band in the Hakka Music competition, also receiving First Prize in the 2007 Original Songwriting Competition.
During her formative years studying in the University of Arts, she was highly inspired by all kinds of Art forms including drama, literature, dance, and contemporary fine arts. She grew to be aware of the importance of originality and the excitement required to create great art. She started to look for her own musical voice.
After she finished graduate school, she received a Scholarship from Berklee College of Music and decided in 2008, to enroll into Berklee, majoring in Performance. She has studied jazz vibraphone with virtuosos Dave Samuels and Ed Saindon, and Marimba with Nancy Zeltsman. In 2008, she received the prestigious award of “Most Active Mallet Player” from the percussion department. During her time at Berklee, she maintained regular performances with jazz and Latin jazz bands as well as her own quartet and sextet. She also served as Timpanist in the Video Game Orchestra (VGO) for well over a year.
In 2011, Yuhan graduated from Berklee College of Music.
Currently, she is working on her original compositions with her group and preparing for her first album release. She is also very passionate about the marimba and devotes much of her time to writing solo and ensemble arrangements, and compositions for the marimba. She hopes her passion of writing music featuring the unique and beautiful sounds of mallet instruments will contribute to the repertoire and explore the possibilities of these instruments. Her marimba pieces are going to be published in the near future.
Currently, Yuhan plays with her own trio group “Yuhan Su Trio” around Boston and NYC. The trio is with a innovative instrumentation including vibraphone/malletKAT, guitar and drums.
