Yu-Hui Chang 張玉慧, Composer
Using a decidedly contemporary language of diverse harmonic color, inventive timbre and ingenious effects, award-winning composer Yu-Hui Chang (b. 1970) has written a wide range of music that compels and resonates with professional musicians and audiences alike. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, and commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, and Meet The Composer (now New Music USA). Additional honors include the Aaron Copland Award, Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize from the Asian Composers’ League, and the Council for Cultural Affairs of the Executive Yuan (Taiwanese government agency, now Ministry of Culture.)
A native of Taiwan, Yu-Hui began her intensive music training in piano, voice, and music theory at the age of six, and started seriously pursuing composition as a career at the age of fourteen. After graduating from the National Taiwan Normal University, she came to the United States in 1994 and received her graduate degrees from Brandeis University (Ph.D.) and Boston University (MM). Now an Associate Professor at Brandeis University, Yu-Hui taught at the University of California-Davis between 1999-2006. As a dedicated promoter of contemporary music, Yu-Hui co-directed the Empyrean Ensemble, the ensemble-in-residence at UC Davis, between 2000-2006. In 2009 she was appointed Co-Artistic Director of Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, a leading exponent of contemporary music performance since 1975. Collectively she has curated more than seventy concerts.
Performances of Yu-Hui’s compositions have taken places across continents in the Netherlands, Italy, UK, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and throughout the U.S. to critical acclaim by many first-rate musicians and organizations such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, Nieuw Ensemble, Lydian String Quartet, and Alexander String Quartet. Among the numerous commissions she has received are those from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Taipei Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Earplay, Alea III, Volti, Triple Helix Piano Trio, Ju Percussion Group, Monadnock Music Festival, Arts Council Korea, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Center of Taiwan, the 2003 Seoul International Festival of Women in Music Today, and many other individual musicians.
In the summer of 2011, Yu-Hui was invited to be the Guest Composer at the Wellesley Composers Conference. She has also been featured in the Asian Music Festival in Tokyo, the Asian Contemporary Music Festival in Seoul, the Pacific Rim Music Festival at UC Santa Cruz, and the Festival of New American Music at California State University – Sacramento. In March 2006, Works and Process at the New York Guggenheim Museum presented three of her works, highlighting Yu-Hui as a new talent of the younger generation.
Yu-Hui’s compositions may be found in CDs recorded by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (Shadow Chase – for string quartet), pianist Lara Downes (Ballade, “Reform” album, Azica Records), pianist Amy Briggs (Tangled in Smoke, “Tangos for Piano” album, Ravello Records), Volti (Being, “House of Voices” album, Innova Recordings), cellist Rhonda Rider (Rio del Tizon, “The Grand Canyon Project” album, MSR Classics), and violinist Daniel Stepner (Worries Just As Real, “Music At Brandeis” album, Centaur Records). Yu-Hui also appears as a conductor in composer Ross Bauer’s CD “Ritual Fragments” and as a pianist in a CD titled “Tribute to Chou Wen-chung”, both released by the Albany label.
作曲家張玉慧出生於台中，在六歲時即進入音樂資賦優異班受嚴格的訓練。先後畢業於國立台灣師範大學(B.F.A.)，波士頓大學(M.M.)，及在美國理論作曲界極負盛名的Brandeis大學(Ph.D.)。曾師事呂玲英、林進祐、曾興魁、Marjorie Merryman、Martin Boykan、David Rakowsky、和普立茲獎得主Yehudi Wyner等教授。在1999年至2006年間在美國加州大學Davis分校任教，並擔任Empyrean現代室內樂團的總監， 且在2010年出任在波士頓有近四十年歷史的Dinosaur Annex現代室內樂團的藝術總監，合計發表了超過七十場的音樂會。目前她是Brandeis大學音樂系及音樂研究所的主任及專任副教授
近年來她囊括了數項美國重要的作曲大獎，包括柯普蘭獎，哈佛大學弗朗姆現代音樂基金會的委託創作獎，美國國會圖書館庫茲維斯基音樂基金會的委託創作獎，巴爾羅基金會的委託創作獎，古根漢紀念基金會作曲研究獎金，哈佛大學萊得克利夫研究院的音樂研究學者獎金，以及由美國國家文學藝術院頒發的艾夫斯作曲獎。此外，她也曾獲得美國作曲家論壇獎助金、Meet The Composers獎助金、入野義朗獎、 文建會作曲甄選獎等。她也曾受邀到許多美國著名的大學演講，包括哈佛大學、加州柏克來大學、波士頓大學、衛斯理女子學院等。紐約古根漢美術館的Works & Process藝術季並在2006年以半場音樂會發表她的作品，推崇她為新一代的作曲新秀。
她所接受的委託創作邀約不斷，包括來自波士頓現代管弦樂團、舊金山室內管弦樂團、 Alea III現代室內樂團、 Left Coast室內樂團、Earplay現代室內樂團、Triple Helix鋼琴三重奏、Lydian弦樂四重奏、Volti室內合唱團、台北市交合唱團、朱宗慶打擊樂團、唐律長笛合奏團、魔笛單簧管四重奏、Meet The Composers、加州大學蒙大維表演藝術中心、首爾世界當代女音樂家音樂節、Monadnock音樂節、費城的Chamber Music Now音樂季、韓國文化藝術委員會、國立中正文化中心、 打擊樂家Chris Froh、大提琴家Rhonda Rider等。其作品雖多在美國各地演出，也經常在台灣以及日本、韓國、義大利、英國、荷蘭、丹麥、紐西蘭、中國大陸等地發表。演出她作品的音樂團體及演奏家包括國家交響樂團、台北市立交響樂團、Sacramento愛樂交響樂團、紐西蘭三重奏、Nieuw Ensemble、 Contempo現代室內樂團、ECCE現代室內樂團、Alexander弦樂四重奏、新亞洲弦樂四重奏、二胡名家陳潔冰、鋼琴家Amy Briggs, Marilyn Nonken等。她的作品也經常出現在許多國際及美國重要的音樂節，例如倫敦的美國音樂音樂節、東京的2003亞州音樂節、漢城的2002亞州現代音樂節、Pacific Rim音樂節、佛羅里達州州立大學的新音樂音樂節、加州的新美國音樂音樂節等。
Source from http://yuhuichang.com/bio_chinese
