Shih-Hui Chen () is a Taiwanese composer who lives and works in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Biography

Chen Shih-hui (陳士惠) was born in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

, and came to the United States in 1982 to study for a master's degree from

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a Public university, public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of ...

and a doctoral degree from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

. After receiving her DMA in Music Composition, Shih-Hui Chen took a position at the Shepherd School of Music,

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universit ...

where she is currently Professor of Music Composition and Theory. Chen also serves on

Asia Society The Asia Society is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and around the world (Hong Kong, Ma ...

Texas Center's Performing Arts & Culture Committee and is the director o
21C: Classical, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Music
Festival at Rice University. Chen Shih-hui's work has been performed widely throughout the U.S. and abroad, including Taiwan, China, Germany, and Italy. In 1999, she received an American Academy in

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

, a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 2000, and a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headq ...

in 2007. In 2010, Chen received a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to study traditional Chinese Music,

Nanguan music Nanguan (; also ''nanyin'', ''nanyue'', ''xianguan'', or ''nanqu'') is a style of Chinese classical music from the southern Chinese province of Fujian. It is also popular in Taiwan, particularly Lukang on west coast, as well as among Overseas Chi ...

, and music of

Taiwanese Indigenous Taiwanese indigenous peoples (formerly Taiwanese aborigines), also known as Formosan people, Austronesian Taiwanese, Yuanzhumin or Gaoshan people, are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, with the nationally recognized subgroups numbering about ...

peoples.

Work

Musical style

Chen Shih-hui composes for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

chamber ensemble Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

, voice, and solo instruments. She also composes music for theater and film. Her music blends both her Western training and cultural heritage. A citation accompanying her 2007 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.”

Selected recent compositions

*Messages from a Formosan Village (2019) * Echoes from Within: A Musical Response to Cy Twombly for sheng, contrabass and electronics (2018) * Withhold the Umbrella for Chinese Orchestra (2018) * Flashback Moments for piano quartet (2018) * The Pilgrimage for Acapella Chorus (2017) * Ascending Waves for large orchestra (2017) * Silvergrass, Cello and Chamber Orchestra or Ensemble (2016) *Ten Thousand Blooms, Falling Petals for Traditional Korean Orchestra or ensemble (2015) * Fantasia on the Theme of Guanlingsan for Zheng and Chinese Chamber Orchestra or Ensemble (2014, 2015) * A Plea to Lady Chang’e for Nanguan Pipa and String Quartet or Orchestra (2013, 2014) * Returning Souls: Four Short Pieces on Three Formosan Amis Legends for Solo Violin or String Quartet (2011, 2013) * Our Names, for Narrator and Chamber Ensemble (2010) * Returnings, for Flute, Percussion and Cello (2010) * Fantasia on the Theme of Plum Blossoms for String Quartet (2007-9)

Distinctions

* Barlow Endowment Commission (2001). * Bunting Institute Fellowship at the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...

(1996). *

(2010) for study of traditional Chinese Music, Nanguan music, and music of the Taiwanese aboriginal people. * Fromm Music Foundation Commission (1995). * Goddard Lieberson Fellowship,

(2007). * Koussevitzky Music Foundation Commission (2004). * John Simon

(2000). *

, The

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects ...

, Italy (1999).

References

External links

Shepherd School of Music Faculty Biography
ontains performance calendar of Rice University engagements and further information about 21C
Composer's WebsiteComposer's SoundCloud[Video
"Returning Souls" with Formosa Quartet">ideo">[Video
"Returning Souls" with Formosa Quartet
[Video
"Echoes from Within: A Musical Response to Cy Twombly"] {{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Shih-Hui 1962 births Living people 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers Taiwanese music educators Women classical composers Taiwanese classical composers Musicians from Taipei Northern Illinois University alumni Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni Rice University faculty Taiwanese emigrants to the United States Women music educators 20th-century women composers 21st-century women composers Fulbright alumni