carrying hundred-pound loads of rocks and mud for irrigation walls, I would play both simple songs to farmers along with excerpts from the standard western classical repertory. It was during that period that I started thinking about the value of individual lives and the importance of education in society. As an artist living in the United States, I feel strongly that I can improve the understanding between people by sharing my music."
Trained as a violinist in the European classical tradition, Chen Yi initially came into contact with Chinese folk music in a forced relocation to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Already widely celebrated in China as a major new composer during the increasingly open cultural climate of the 1980s, Chen Yi came to the United States in 1986 to continue her musical studies. She writes both intimate and large scale works for European and Chinese instruments, and fuses Western orchestral and choral idioms with traditional Eastern pentatonic tonalities. A recent multimedia work, Chinese Myths Cantata, yokes a symphony orchestra, an ensemble of traditional Chinese instrumentalists and a choir of male singers, a Chinese dance troupe with visual image projections on stage.
Links: e-mail, Theodor Presser Company, New Albion Records, Music From China, Peabody Conservatory
Born 1953, Guangzhou, China; residence in US since 1986
Lives in Baltimore
1983 B.A., Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
1986 M.A., Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
1993 Doctor of Musical Arts, Columbia University
1993-96 Composer-in-Residence, The Women's Philharmonic, Vocal Ensemble Chanticleer, Aptos Creative Arts Program, San Francisco
1996-present Member of the Composition Faculty, Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University
Selected Compositions
1997 Qi for Flute, Cello, Piano & Percussion
Consortium Commission Award: Meet The Composer/Reader's Digest, for NY New Music Consort, LA Philharmonic, SF Contemporary Music Players
1996 Chinese Myths Cantata
Commissioned by MTC for The Women's Philharmonic and Chanticleer
1995 Tang Poems for chorus
Commissioned by MTC for Chanticleer
1994 Ge Xu (Antiphony)
Commissioned by MTC for The Women's Philharmonic
1994 A Set of Chinese Folk Songs for chorus
Commissioned by MTC for Chanticleer
1993 Symphony No. 2
Commissioned by The Women's Philharmonic
1992 Piano Concerto
Commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic
1992 Sparkle for chamber ensemble
Commissioned grant from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust
1987 Duo Ye No. 2
Commissioned by the Central Philarmonic of China
1983 Xian Shi (Viola Concerto)
1996 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
1996 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters
1996 Sorel Medal for Excellence in Music, the Center for Women in Music, New York University
1993-96 Meet the Composer New Residencies grant
1994 National Endowment for the Arts Composer's Fellowship
1994 Lili Boulanger Award, The Women's Philharmonic
