Ming-Hsiu YEN is an active composer and pianist. Her compositions have been played in the United States, Taiwan, Japan, France, South Korea, China and Hong Kong, and by such orchestras as Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan), YinQi Symphony Orchestra and Choir (Taiwan), University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, and by such ensembles as PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Brave New Works, OSSIA, Music From China, New Music Project, and Society for Chromatic Arts, among others. She has been the winner of the Asian Composers League Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize, the Heckscher Composition Prize, League of Composers/ISCM-USA Competition, the governmental Literary and Artistic Creation Competition (Taiwan), and Sun River Composition Competition (China), and has received commission awards from the Hanson Institute for American Music, YinQi Symphony Orchestra and Choir, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, New Music Project, and Asia Trombone Seminar. Her compositions have been presented in Carnegie-Weill Hall, Hill Auditorium, Kitara Hall (Japan), National Concert Hall (Taiwan), National Recital Hall (Taiwan), Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Pacific Music Festival, SCI National Conference, Midwest Composers’ Symposium, Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival, and The Intimacy of Creativity—The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong, among many others. Her music has been broadcasted on the Minnesota Public Radio Station and the Radio Television Hong Kong, and has been recorded on Innova Recordings and Blue Griffin Recording labels.
Actively performing as a soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Yen has premiered many new works of her colleagues and frequently performs in new music festivals throughout the United States, such as Midwest Composers Symposium, Society of Composers, Inc. National Conference, Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival, the ONCE. MORE. Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, New Music Forum, Farmington Musicale, Taiwanese Music Festival, etc., as well as The Intimacy of Creativity—The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong. She is a two-time winner of the University of Michigan Concerto Competition and performed with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra three times (Barber’s in 2004, Yen’s in 2005, and Corigliano’s in 2008). She also received prizes from the 2006 Young Artist Competition of the Ann Arbor Society for Musical Arts and the 2009 Grieg Festival Young Artists Competition.
On top of composing and performing activities, she has also served as Conductor/Music Director at the Taiwanese Choir in Ann Arbor and the Taiwanese Choral Society of Rochester, and as Music Director in Piano at the Michigan Taiwanese Organization; she was invited as the adjudicator for the PTA Reflections Composition Contest (USA), the MiTAI 6th Annual Taiwanese Music Festival (USA), the New Generation 2011 Composition Competition (Hong Kong), and the 2011 & 2012 Hong Kong International Piano Invitation Competition.
Born in Taiwan, Ms. Yen holds degrees from the University of Michigan (DMA in composition; MM in composition and in piano performance) and the Eastman School of Music (BM in composition and in piano performance, with a distinguished honor of Performer's Certificate). At the University of Michigan, she was funded with full scholarship for the master's and the doctoral programs. Moreover, she was one of the very few doctoral candidates who received the distinguished Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship during her final year.
Her primary composition teachers have included Bright Sheng, William Bolcom, Betsy Jolas, David Liptak, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky, and Gordon Shi-Wen Chin. As a fellow of 2008 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, she worked with Aaron Jay Kernis. She has also studied with Herbert Willi at the 2007 Pacific Music Festival, and with Sydney Hodkinson at the 2006 Aspen Music Festival and School. Her piano teachers have included Logan Skelton and Nelita True.
Ms. Yen was an Adjunct Associate Professor/ Composer-in-Residence at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and has taught music theory at the University of Michigan. She is currently serving as Assistant Professor (Composition/Theory) at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan.
Website update: April 21, 2012
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