Shih-Hui Chen

I陳⼠惠 A citation accompanying Shih-Hui Chen’s Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters states: “Among the composers of Asian descent living in the U.S.A., Shih-Hui Chen is most successful in balancing the very refined spectral traditions of the East with the polyphonic practice of Western art-music. In a seamless narrative, her beautiful music, always highly inventive and expressive, is immediately as appealing as it is demanding and memorable.” According to the New Music Box review of 66 Times (Albany Records), Chen “…completely blurs the line between traditional Chinese music and contemporary American composition.” Her most recent CD, Returning Souls (New World), was hailed by Wire Magazine for its “deep musical intelligence.”

Born in Taiwan, Shih-Hui Chen has lived in the United States since 1982 and received her doctorate from Boston University. In addition to garnering a Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an American Academy in Rome Prize, her compositions have been performed widely throughout the U.S. and abroad, including China, Japan, England, Germany, and Italy. Chen’s compositions have brought her into contact with many orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Modern
Orchestra Project, Utah Symphony and Taipei Chinese Orchestra. Her chamber music has been presented by the Arditti Quartet, Network for New Music, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Freon Ensemble in Rome, Italy. Chen’s work has also been the subject of analysis by scholars such as German ethnomusicologist Barbara Mittler, who wrote Chen’s biographical entry in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Seeking a deeper understanding of her native culture and music, Chen spent two years in Taiwan studying indigenous and Nanguan music (2010 Fulbright Senior Scholar and 2013 Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellowship, affiliated with the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.) In addition, Chen takes personal pride in promoting Taiwanese culture by organizing events beyond the confines of the concert hall. In 2013, she launched the U.S. tour for Returning Souls, a documentary film and concert music (in collaboration with anthropological filmmaker Taili Hu) based on the music and culture of indigenous Taiwanese tribes. Chen served as director for the 2015 Common Practice 21C: Classical, Contemporary, and Cross-Culture Music, bringing musicians from Taiwan, China and Southeast Asia to present a three-day festival at Rice University and Asia Society Texas Center. Chen recently completed the 2016 Nanguan festival and tour, which will present a mixture of traditional Nanguan and newly composed works influenced by Nanguan.

Chen serves on Asia Society Texas Center’s Performing Arts & Culture Committee. She is the department chair of composition and a professor at The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, where she also chairs the Syzygy New Music concert series. Recent projects include A Plea to Lady Chang’e (推忱著衣-- 南管新唱) for Chamber Orchestra and Nanguan pipa; Fantasia on the Theme of Guanglingsan for Zheng and Chinese Orchestra (廣陵散的迴響); three new orchestral works for the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Rim Music Festival and National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra; and Messages From a Paiwan Village (⼟板部落往返
的信), a 50-minute storytelling musical drama. Her music can be heard on Albany, New World and Bridge Records.