Bio

Yuan-Chen Li (b.1980, Taiwan, R.O.C.) Li made her first debut to the scene of contemporary music in Taiwan with her very personal use of instrumentations and styles in her chamber music Tsang (the funeral) in 2000. In the year of 2003, the expressions and orchestration in her orchestral work Awakening won the prize from Asian Music Festival 2003 in Tokyo under Asian Composers’ League. Recent years, issues and expressions dealt in Li’s music reflect her constant retrospection of Asian traditional arts and literatures, including the performance practice, timbre, and harmony in tradition music, the multi-perspectives in Chinese landscape painting, and the intersubjectivity between narrator and nature in Chinese poetry. Relevant works addressing those issues are Intermezzo-Tsan (meditation), Cat’s Romp, Like A Dream – An Illusion, and Ling (to ride, to act upon). Along with Li’s creativity of composition, she is a graduate student in her scholar years at the University of Chicago where she is pursuing Ph.D. in music composition. Currently she is studying composition under Kotoka Suzuki, Marta Ptaszynska and Shulamit Ran. Her research interests deals with timbral gesture of vocal repertory in contemporary music, and the analysis of tonal music. Before her residence in Chicago, Li had spent three years at Yale University School of Music, studying composition with Martin Bresnick and Ezra Laderman. She also holds MA and BA from Taipei University of the Arts (TNUA) in which she studied composition with Tsung-Hsien Yang and Chung-Kun Hung. During her years of discipleship in TNUA, she came to be acquainted with Noh Theater, Chinese phonology of music literature, and guqin (7-string zither). And her apprenticeship as a composition student had lasted for ten years of study Ting-Lien Wu before her entered the college. Major awards and honors include Ezra Laderman Prize, Rena Greenwalk Memorial Prize, First prize of Literature and Art Creation Award, Chang-Hui Hsu Memorial Prize of Asian Composers League, and Scholarship of Arts from Tzu Chi Foundation. Most of Li’s commissions are from major symphonic orchestras, ensembles, and soloists in Taiwan. Her music are introduced to the primary concert series in Taiwan and programmed in music festivals among Asia, U.S., and Europe: Thailand International Saxophone Conference, Concert of Cross-Strait Peace Symphonic Orchestra, Beijing International Guzheng Music Festival (‘09), Composers/Pianists concert series (U.S., 2008-present), New Music New Haven (Yale, 2006-08), The Female Form: Women Composers (New York, 2008), Listening to the 21 Century (Taipei, 2007), Soundbridges (Berlin, 2007), Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (Norfolk, 2007), Tune in to Taiwan 2003 (Taipei, 2003), Asian Music Festival (Tokyo, 2003), New Ideal Dance Festival (Taipei, 2003), Kuan-Du Musical Soiree (Taipei, 2001). [b]Contact[/b] yuanchen.li[at]yahoo.com [b]List of Work[/b] Orchestra: Like A Dream, An Illusion, orch (with Orgl, Hp, Vln, and Fl), 2007; Awakening, 2003; Prelude for Seh, 2001. Chamber: Monet’s Lilypond , for improvised ensemble (commission by Shih-Yang LEE), 2010 The Fireworks, string quartet (commission by Counterpoint Chamber Music), 2010 Zhong (Bell) Perc. Sextet (commissioned by Forum Music), 2008; Butterfly, pf, fl, ob, cl, bsn (commissioned by Norfolk Chamber Music Festival), 2007; Cats’ Romp II, zheng & pf (commissioned by Hao-Yin Huang), 2007; A Bubble or A Shadow, fl, ob, perc, hp, pf, vn, vla, kb, 2006; Reminiscence, kb & pf (commissioned by Hsien-Chieh Tsai), 2006; The Morning Bell and the Evening Drum, percussion duet, (commissioned by Forum Music for Ten Anniversary Concert Series), 2006 Adagio for Promenade, fl, hp, orgl, vn, 2005 Intermezzo: Tsan, fl, ob, cl, vib, hp, pf, cel, qin, vn, vla, kb, 2005 Aqua- II, perc. Quartet, 2004 Saying (Yanchih), Str Qt, pipa, 2003 Can? (Nen?), Str Qt, 2001 Chant for An Enjoyable Evening (Liang Siau Yin), pf, vc., 2001 The Funeral (Tsang), ob, pipa, perc, kb, 2000 Solo: Ling, for alto sax (dedicated to Chun-Hao KU), 2009 Migoh (Song of Rice), pf (commissioned by Chih-Long Hu), 2007; Tideleaf, pipa solo, 2005 Three Portraitures of a Common Calla, vla solo Cat’s Romp, Zheng solo, 2003 The Source (Yuan), vla solo, 2001 Regret (Han), pf solo, 2001 Seh, pf solo, 1998 Vocal: Mong Huan Pao Ying (Dream-Illusion-Bubble-Shadow), 4S4A4T4B and four percussionists, 2008; Three Poems by Rabindranath Tagore, sp, fl, pf, vc, 2007; Three Poems from Shyi Mu-Rong, sp, pf, 2000 The Heart Sutra (Hsin Jin), choral for sp solo, 2S, A, T, hp, kb Arrangement & Incidental: Folksongs – Tribute to Berio and Formosa, commission by Moment Musical), 2010 Hakka Folk Song Cycle, Cn Orch, 2006; Lin Ji Geh, Cn Orch Ens, 2004. Duet, vn, vc, incidental music for Drama-reading “Les Fenêtres,” 2003 The Rain, Darkness, and Blooming (Yu Yeh Hwa), vla, pf, Folksong arrangement, 1999 Tamsui’s Dusk, vc, pf, Folksong arrangement, 1998 “Les Miserables”, orch and female chori, rearrangement, 1998 [b][/b][b][/b][b][b]