Yu-Hui Chang, composer

News

“Mind Like Water” album to be released by New Focus Recordings

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 performing “Being: Two Collins Songs” in the California Festival

Volti

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.

Charles Neidich performing “Three Fantasias” in Taipei

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.

Winsor Music Commission and Premiere

Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge, MA.

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” West Coast premiere

“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.

Ann E. Pitzer Center
Ann E. Pitzer Center
Empyrean Ensemble rehearsing “Germinate”

“Mind Stretch” in pianist Jihye Chang’s BOSTON ETUDES project

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.

Jihye Chang, pianist

Collage New Music’s “The Composer Speaks” series

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.

“Saving Faces” interview

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”.

Click on the link for the interview page: https://klangforum-heidelberg.de/media/interview-mit-der-komponistin-yu-hui-chang

Opus Illuminate online concert and interview

Opus Illuminate, a new performance organization led by Nathan Meltzer, Devin Moore, and Derek Louie, presented a series of online concerts and interviews during the Covid pandemic, with an admirable aim of “working towards reestablishing our art form as the pioneering force in the efforts of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging across the cultural sector.” Yu-Hui had the pleasure of having her Three Fantasias (2006) performed in this series’s concert #7 by clarinetist Ning Zhang, along with a video interview.

Follow this link to see the interview: https://www.opusilluminate.com/chang

Klangforum Heidelberg commission

As part of its EINGESPERRT (“locked-in”) project, Klangforum Heidelberg commissioned Yu-Hui to compose a new piece, Saving Faces, for 6 vocalists and 6 instrumentalists. This new piece is a reaction towards the recent development of facial recognition technology, commenting on how the individuals and the human society as a whole are thus affected. From October 24-28, 2020, SCHOLA HEIDELBERG and ensemble aisthesis, led by artistic director Walter Nußbaum, will give the premiere performances in several German cities, including Heidelberg, Hannover, Karlsruhe, and Oldenburg. Also on the program are Clemens Gadenstätter’s “die zelle” and Ye Shen’s “Raum/Distanz”.

Listen

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.