Yu-Hui's "Mind Stretch" for piano solo (2021) is included in pianist Jihye Chang's upcoming Boston Etudes CD album, which is set to be released on October 18, 2024, by New Focus Recordings. Jihye's commanding and brilliant performance perfectly showcases Mind Stretch'svirtuosity and agility. Also on this album are works by William David Cooper, Marti Epstein, Eun Young Lee, John McDonald, Stratis Minakakis, Ketty Nez, and Dan VanHassel.
Yu-Hui’s latest orchestral piece “Hawking Radiation” will be premiered by Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) on May 25 at Jordan Hall in Boston. Also on the program are pieces by Leonard Bernstein, Harold Shapero, and Henri Lazarof. Conceived when the first black hole image was released in 2019, and completed during the time when the Covid pandemic was at its height, “Hawking Radiation” is a search for hope. Hope that human goodness will prevail when the world is in turmoil, just like the glowing light surrounding the darkest black hole.
Yu-Hui’s new “Mind Like Water” album is set to be officially released on January 19, 2024, under the New Focus Recordings label. This album showcases four chamber/solo works that focus on the dialogues between a composer and her work, between different musical ideas, and between a soloist and her instrument. The recording features performances by the Lydian String Quartet, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, Composers Conference Ensemble, and cellist Rhonda Rider. See New Focus Recordings website for more information.
Volti, a professional vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, revisited Yu-Hui’s “Being: Two Collins Songs” in a series of concerts between 11/3 – 11/5, 2023, in the Bay Area as part of the California Festival: A Celebration of New Music. Commissioned and premiered by Volti in 2010, “Being: Two Collins Songs” is an a cappella chamber choir piece that sets two poems written by former Poet Laureate Billy Collins – “The Night House” and “Shoveling Snow with Buddha”. This piece was subsequently included in Volti’s “House of Voices” CD album, released by Innova Recordings in 2012.
Eminent clarinetist Charles Neidich is performing Yu-Hui’s “Three Fantasias” at the Eslite Performance Hall in Taipei on November 13, 2022, as part of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra’s chamber music concert series. Also on the program is his own composition “Firefly”, plus chamber pieces by Prokofiev and Brahms (with members of Taipei Symphony Orchestra). This concert was initially cancelled/postponed during the pandemic.
Yu-Hui’s new work “Resurfacing”, a commission from Winsor Music, received its premiere on October 28, 2022, at the beautiful Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge, MA. Written for oboe, bass clarinet, violin, and cello, “Resurfacing” is about trying to find and redefine normalcy amid the residual shadow of the Covid pandemic. Click here for the review of the concert from the Boston Musical Intelligencer.
“Germinate” received its west coast premiere in October 2022 at the beautiful Ann E. Pitzer Center, UC Davis. The Empyrean Ensemble, directed by composer Sam Nichols, gave a superb performance under the baton of conductor Matilda Hofman. Yu-Hui was also invited to give a talk in UCD’s Valente Lecture series.
BOSTON ETUDES is a project initiated by pianist Jihye Chang, for which she commissioned 8 Boston-based composers to each write a new piano étude for a series of virtual premieres on YouTube during the Covid-19 pandemic. As part of this project, Yu-Hui’s “Mind Stretch” is not only an exercise of the pianist’s physical virtuosity, but also a test of her mental agility with its quick changes of musical gestures and expressions. After the online premiere on December 9th, 2021, “Mind Stretch”, along with all the études in this project, eventually received an in-person premiere on February 25th, 2022, at Distler Performance Hall, Granoff Music Center, Tufts University.
As one of the featured composers in Collage New Music’s “The Composer Speaks” series, Yu-Hui was interviewed by conductor David Hoose, and their lively conversation included topics ranging from musical identity to composition advice. The entire interview is posted on Collage’s YouTube channel. Several other composers are also presented in this series, including Peter Child, John Harbison, Joan Tower, John Heiss, Yehudi Wyner, Michael Gandolfi, Richard Festinger, Marty Epstein, William Kraft, David Rakowski, Lior Navok, Bernard Rands, and Augusta Read Thomas. Collage New Music is an ensemble founded in 1972, and it has been advancing music by composers from the 20th and 21st century ever since.
Yu-Hui’s new work “Saving Faces” for 6 vocalists and 6 instrumentalists was successfully premiered live in a series of sold-out concerts in Germany during October 2020. While Yu-Hui was prevented from attending due to Covid travel restrictions, Klangforum Heidelberg, which commissioned and performed this new work, recorded an interview session between Yu-Hui and musicologist Dr. Hannes Jedeck, so that the audience in Germany may have a chance to hear from Yu-Hui directly the concept behind “Saving Faces”.
Award-winning composer Yu-Hui Chang has written a wide range of music that compels and resonates with professional musicians and audiences alike.
Her music is characterized by energy, precision, ingenious effects, and vibrant colors – all in the pursuit of a deep connection with humanity. She strives to break through cultural and stylistic boundaries, and to take an inclusive view of musical diversity. This attitude is manifested in the multifaceted quality of her compositional output, and the stylistic fluidity in her writing.
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