Ming-Hsiu Yen: Biography

Ming-Hsiu Yen (b. 1980, Taiwan) is an active composer and pianist. She has written music for solo, chamber, orchestra, choir, as well as electronic music, and her compositions have been played by such orchestras as Minnesota Orchestra, YINQI Symphony Orchestra and Choir (Taiwan), University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, and by such ensembles as PRISM Quartet, Music From China, Brave New Works, OSSIA, Society of Chromatic Art, etc. She has been the winner of the governmental Literary and Artistic Creation Competition (Taiwan), Sun River Composition Competition (China), League of Composers/ISCM-USA Competition, Anthony and Carolyn Donato Prize (Eastman), and McCurdy Prize (Eastman), and has received commission awards from the Hanson Institute for American Music, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and New Music Project. Being broadcasted on Minnesota Public Radio, her compositions have also been performed in concert venues, such as Carnegie-Weill Hall, Hill Auditorium (MI), Kitara Hall (Japan), and National Recital Hall (Taiwan), and have been presented in Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Pacific Music Festival, SCI National Conference, Midwest Composers’ Symposium, Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival, Threshold Music Festival, Merging Voices, Electronic Music Midwest, and Taiwanese Music Festival (MiTAI).

Actively performing as a soloist and chamber musician, Ms. Yen is a two-time winner of the University of Michigan Concerto Competition and performed with 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 Young Artist Competition of the Ann Arbor Society for Musical Arts, and the Greig Festival Young Artists Competition. In addition, her performance was honored “the best of show” in 2008 Collage concert at the University of Michigan.

Ms. Yen, recently received the prestigious Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, is a DMA candidate in composition at the University of Michigan. She holds dual degrees in both composition and piano performance from the University of Michigan (MM), and the Eastman School of Music (BM, with a distinguished honor of Performer's Certificate). She has studied composition with Bright Sheng, William Bolcom, Betsy Jolas, Tania Leon, Michael Colgrass, David Liptak, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky, and Gordon Shi-Wen Chin, and piano with Logan Skelton, Nelita True, and Vincent Lenti. She was a fellow of Minnesota Composer Institute, Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, and Brevard Music Center, where her mentors have included Aaron Jay Kernis, Herbert Willi, Sydney Hodkinson, and Donald Freund.