Recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award
from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2001-04),
Chen Yi* has served as the
Lorena Searcey Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished
Professor in Music Composition at the Conservatory of the
University of Missouri-Kansas City since 1998. Prior to her
current appointment, Chen served on the composition faculty
of Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore (1996-98) and as Composer-in-Residence with the
Women’s Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and Aptos Creative
Arts Center in San Francisco (1993-96), supported by Meet
The Composer’s New Residencies Program. She was
elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in
2005.
Born April 4, 1953, in Guangzhou, China, into a family
of doctors with a strong interest in classical music, Chen
Yi started studying violin and piano at age three with
Zheng Rihua and Li Suxin, and music theory with Zheng
Zhong. Dr. Chen has received music degrees from the Beijing
Central Conservatory (BA and MA) and Columbia University in
the City of New York (DMA). Dr. Chen’s major
composition teachers included Professors Chou Wen-chung,
Mario Davidovsky, Wu Zu-qiang and Alexander Goehr.
Chen Yi was the first woman to receive a master’s
degree in composition in China in June, 1986, when she
presented a full evening concert of her orchestral works in
Beijing. She was also the first woman to present a full
evening multimedia orchestral concert in the US (for
orchestra, choir, Chinese traditional instrumental
soloists, dancers, and image projection – the
Chinese Myths Cantata), in May, 1996, with
three sold out performances in San Francisco. In 2001, she
was invited by the China National Symphony Orchestra and
Chorus to give an evening-length concert of her orchestral
and choral works in Beijing. On May 29, 2008, there is
another evening concert of her more recent orchestral works
presented by the China National Symphony Orchestra in
Beijing. By combining Chinese and Western traditions, Chen
Yi transcends cultural and musical boundaries, and serves
as an ambassador for the arts, creating music that reaches
a wide range of audiences and inspires people of different
cultural backgrounds.
Dr. Chen has received fellowships from the Guggenheim
Foundation (1996) and the National Endowment for the Arts
(1994), as well as the Lieberson Award from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters (1996). Other honors include
first prize in the Chinese National Composition Competition
(1985), the Lili Boulanger Award from the National Women
Composers Resource Center (1993), New York
University’s Sorel Medal (1996), the CalArts/Alpert
Award (1997), a Grammy Award (1999), the University of
Texas Eddie Medora King Composition Prize (1999), the
Adventurous Programming and Concert Music awards from ASCAP
(1999 and 2001, respectively), the Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center’s Elise Stoeger Award (2002), the
Edgar Snow Memorial Fund’s Friendship Ambassador
Award (2002), an honorary doctorate from Lawrence
University (2002), and the Kauffman Award in
Artistry/Scholarship from the UMKC Conservatory (2006).
Dr. Chen has received major commissions from the
Koussevitzky, Fromm, Ford, Rockefeller, and Roche
foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber
Music America, Meet The Composer, the Creative Work Fund,
the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Mary Cary Trust,
NYSCA, Carnegie Hall, New Heritage Music Foundation,
Friends of Dresden Music Foundation, the American Guild of
Organists, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the
Eastman School, Ithaca College, Bradley University, Miami
University, Chorus America, and the 6th World Symposium on
Choral Music. Commissioning ensembles and soloists include
the Lucerne Music Festival for the Cleveland Orchestra,
Mira Wang along with the Sächsische Staatskapelle
Dresden and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the
Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the BBC Proms Festival for
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, Yo-Yo
Ma and the Pacific Symphony, Raschèr Saxophone
Quartet and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Yehudi
Menuhin, Emanuel Ax, Michala Petri, Evelyn Glennie and the
Singapore Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, The
Women’s Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the
Metropolitan Wind Symphony, Philadelphia Classical
Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chamber Music
Society of Minnesota, New Music Consort, San Francisco
Contemporary Music Players, Chanticleer, KITKA, San
Francisco Citywinds, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Music
From China, the Ying Quartet, the Elements Quartet, the
Shanghai Quartet, the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra, the
HK Chinese Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva, Network For New
Music, Opus 21, Chicago a cappella, KC Chorale, Peninsula
Women’s Chorus, and many others. Dr. Chen’s
music is performed worldwide and published by Theodore
Presser Company. Her works have been recorded on the New
Albion (1997), CRI/NewWorld (1999/2007), Teldec (1997, 1999
with Grammy, 2003), Nimbus (1993, 2000), Cala (1995), Avant
(1998), Atma (1999), Hugo (2000), Angel (2001), Bis
(2002-4), Albany (2004-6), Cavalli (2004), Centaur
(2004-5), Quartz (2006), and China Record Corporation
(1986, 1990) labels. Dr. Chen’s most recent CD
releases include recordings of a cello concerto,
Eleanor’s Gift [Troy648], the
Golden Flute concerto [KIC7566], a string
quartet, At the Kansas City Chinese New Year
Concert [QTZ2055], and a third album of orchestral
works titled Momentum [Bis1352].
Premieres from 2007 and 2008 include Three
Bagatelles from China West (2007, for flute and
piano), Looking at the Sea (2007, for
women’s chorus), China West Suite
(2007, for 2 pianos), a song cycle, From the Path of
Beauty, for Chanticleer and the Shanghai Quartet
(2008), The Ancient Chinese Beauty, a
recorder concerto for Michala Petri, (2008), Suite
From China West, a wind ensemble work for the
Metropolitan Wind Symphony (2008), Tunes from My
Home for The Newstead Trio (2008), an orchestral
work Rhyme of Fire (formerly titled Olympic
Fire) for the Royal Philharmonic at the BBC Proms (2008), a
woodwind quintet for Antara Winds, a double concerto for
oboe and sheng and the China National Symphony (2008), and
an overture for the new China National Theatre (2009 New
Year).
Premiere works in 2009 include a chamber orchestra work
for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, a student orchestra
work for Omaha Area Youth Symphony, a marimba solo work for
Nancy Zeltsman, a duet for the Music Teachers’
Association of CA, and new wind ensemble works for both the
MAC Band Director's Association and the NWECG.
Recent years have seen the world premieres of numerous
other works, including the cello concerto, Ballad,
Dance and Fantasy (written for Yo-Yo Ma);
Symphony No. 3; Tu, for
symphonic wind ensemble (adapted from the original version
for full orchestra); Celebration (for
orchestra); Spring in Dresden, a violin
concerto written for Mira Wang; Si Ji (Four
Seasons), a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in
Music, product of the prestigious second Roche Commission
and the subject of a book published by Roche (View the book on Chen Yi’s Si
Ji here!); The Han Figurines
(sextet); Tibetan Tunes (piano trio);
Ji-Dong-Nuo, for solo piano, commissioned by
Carnegie Hall for Emanuel Ax; Ancient Dances
(pipa and percussion duet written for Wu Man); and
The Ancient Beauty, for Chinese instruments
and string orchestra, written for Music From China.
Chen Yi is in high demand as a lecturer at composition
workshops and at concerts of her music throughout the
world. She was appointed by the China Ministry of Education
to the prestigious three-year Changjiang Scholar Visiting
Professorship at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music
in 2006, and presently serves on the boards, advisory
councils or juries of Meet The Composer, Chamber Music
America, the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University,
the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, American Composers
Orchestra, the American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the
International Alliance of Women in Music, as well as
numerous other music organizations.
For more information, please visit: http://hometown.aol.com/chenyi/myhomepage/profile.html
Current as of August 2008
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