Chen-Hui Jen’s music presents an imaginative and spiritual poeticism with subtlety and sophistication. She earned her PhD in Composition from the University of California, San Diego, under the mentorship of Prof. Chinary Ung. Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Jen received her MFA in composition from the Taipei National University of the Arts and her BFA in composition at the National Sun Yet-San University, under the instruction of Prof. Hwang-Long Pan and Dr. Tzyy-Sheng Lee. Jen writes orchestral, choral, chamber, and solo works for both Western and Chinese instruments. She recently collaborated with composer and computer musician Jacob David Sudol on multiple works for instruments and live electronics. Jen’s works have been performed at multiple new music festivals and concerts, including the ISCM World New Music Days, Acanthes Music Festival, ACL Music Festival, EarShot San Diego Workshop, New Music Miami ISCM Festival, and Taipei International New Music Festival.
Composer Koji Nakano received his bachelor’s and master's degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. From 2002 to 2003, he studied with Dutch composer Louis Andriessen in Amsterdam and at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague as the Japanese Government Overseas Study Program Artist. Nakano received his PhD in composition from the University of California at San Diego, where he studied with Chinary Ung. Nakano was a visiting faculty member at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he taught world music composition. As a guest professor, he has previously taught composition at Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts, and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. Nakano is currently the Coordinator for International Affairs on the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Burapha University in Thailand, where he also teaches composition as a full-time faculty member. At Burapha, he is also the Director of International Programs for the Annual Music and Performing Arts International Festival and Artistic Director of the Experimental Thai Music and Dance Laboratory for Young Composers. Nakano is a member of ASCAP.
Eric Lai, PhD, is Professor of Music Theory at Baylor University and holds degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Indiana University. Prior to joining the Baylor music faculty, he taught at Indiana University and Hong Kong Baptist University and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Lai’s research, which covers nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western music, Chinese music, and cross-cultural topics, has appeared in Perspectives of New Music, Music Theory Spectrum, Asian Music, Newsletter of the Institute for Studies in American Music, The Bruckner Journal, and Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung. His more recent activities include publishing his book, The Music of Chou Wen-chung (Ashgate, 2009); contributing the Chinese translation of two of the book’s chapters in a Festschrift honoring Chou’s 90th birthday (Shanghai Music Conservatory Press, 2013); and presenting on Bruckner’s symphonies at the International Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music held at the University of Toronto (June 2014).
Mei-Fang Lin received her PhD in composition from the University of California at Berkeley and her master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she also taught as Visiting Assistant Professor of Composition from 2007-2009. From 2002-2005, she lived in France and studied composition with composer Philippe Leroux and participated in the one-year computer music course “Cursus de Composition” at IRCAM in Paris on a Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship and Berkeley’s George Ladd Paris Prize. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Composition at Texas Tech University in 2009. Lin’s music has won awards from the Musica Domani International Competition, American Composers Forum, Seoul International Competition for Composers, Fifth House Ensemble Composer Competition, Bourges Competition, Look & Listen Festival, Pierre Schaeffer Competition, SCI/ASCAP Student Commission Competition, Luigi Russolo Competition, Prix SCRIME, NACUSA, Music Taipei Composition Competition, and others. Her music has received performances and broadcasts internationally in over 30 countries in the world.
Yu-Chung Tseng holds a DMA and is Associate Professor of Electronic Music Composition at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. His music has received critical acclaim and recognition from Bourges Competition, Pierre Schaeffer Competition (1st Prize in 2003; 3rd Prize in 2007), Città di Udine Competition, Musica Nova Competition (1st Prize in 2010; Honorable Mention in 2012), Metamorphoses Competition, and 2011 ICMA Asia-Oceania Regional Composition Award. Tseng's works have also received many performances at festivals and conferences worldwide, including Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Dusseldorf, Tokyo, Brussels, Prague, Perth, Hudersfield, Belfast, Singapore, and more. His music can be heard on labels including CDCM (US), Discontact iii (Canada), Pescara (It.), Contemporanea (It.), Metamorphoses (Belgium), SEAMUS (US), KECD2 (Demark), Musica Nova (Czech), and ICMC2011 DVD.
Nancy Yunhwa Rao is Associate Professor and Chair of Composition and Theory at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. She has published research on Cowell, Craword, Carter and American compositional theory and sketches of the 1930s and 1950s in Music Theory Spectrum, Musical Quarterly, American Music, and Journal of Asian American Studies; on contemporary Chinese compositions in Perspectives of New Music and Contemporary Music Review; and on the historical Chinese music diaspora in North America in 19th Century Music Review, Cambridge Opera Journal and Journal of Society for American Music. Her essay “Ruth Crawford’s Imprint on Contemporary Music” received the Lowens Article Award from the Society for American Music in 2009. She is also the recipient of research fellowships from National Endowment for the Humanities (2005) and American Council of Learned Societies (2004); of the Dena Epstein Award from Music Library Association (2011); and of the Parsons Award from Library of Congress (2012). Her book, Spectacular Sound Across Borders: Chinatown Opera Theaters in North America During the 1920s, is forthcoming and will be published by the University of Illinois Press. She serves on the editorial board of American Music.