The Shepherd School of Music
SHIH-HUI CHEN
Associate Professor of Composition and Theory
 |
Diploma
(1982), National Academy for the Arts |
http://www.shihhuichen.com
In a citation accompanying Shih-Hui Chen’s 2007 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, it states, “among the composers of Asian descent living in the USA, 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.” The release of 66 Times, an Albany Records CD entirely devoted to Chen’s works, was greeted with the following response from the American Music Center’s New Music Box reviewer, “It was tough choosing only one of these works to attempt to wax poetic about here, but I finally opted for the solo pipa, reveling in how it completely blurs the line between traditional Chinese music and contemporary American composition.”
A native of Taiwan, Shih-Hui Chen has lived in the United States since 1982. Since completing her doctorate degree from Boston University, Chen has received significant recognition for her work including a Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an American Academy in Rome Prize. Her compositions have been performed widely throughout the United States and abroad including China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, England, Germany, and Italy. Chen’s composition has brought her into contact with many orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and Utah Symphony. Her chamber music has been presented by the Arditti Quartet at Tanglewood Music Center, Boston Musica Viva, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Network for New Music in Philadelphia, Seattle Chamber Players, Empyrean Ensemble in California, Voices of Change in Dallas, Ensemble Instrumental Appassionata in Quebec, Canada, 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, a specialist in contemporary Chinese music, who analyzed Chen’s work for the Asian Music Journal CHIME and also wrote an entry on her for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Shih-Hui Chen currently serves on the faculty at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University where she teaches music composition and analysis. Recent performances include Mei Hua for String Quartet, performed by the Formosa Quartet in their tour throughout the UK, Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress; Shu Shong Key, a viola concerto for Hsin-Yun Huang commissioned by a consortium of organizations including Da Camera of Houston, Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts in Boston, Appalachian Summer Festival in North Carolina, and Evergreen Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan; and Fu II by eighth blackbird with Yang Wei and Cliff Colnot on the University of Chicago’s Contempo Series at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Upcoming premieres include becoming, a flute concerto commissioned by Carol Wincenc at the Juilliard School in March 2010, and Returnings for Dinosaur Annex (Boston) in April 2010.