Yu-Hui Chang (photo credit: Sharona Jacobs)

Yu-Hui Chang is an award-winning composer whose music resonates deeply with professional musicians and audiences alike. Fanfare magazine called her “a master at what she does.” Her music is characterized by energy, precision, and vibrant colors—all aiming to forge a profound connection with humanity. By intentionally breaking through cultural and stylistic boundaries, Chang embraces musical diversity with an inclusive approach that shapes the varied and fluid style of her extensive compositional output.

Chang’s achievements include the Arts and Letters Award and the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has earned fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. Highly sought after for commissions, her work has been supported by the Fromm, Koussevitzky, and Naumburg music foundations, the Barlow Endowment, and Meet The Composer (now New Music USA). Her other major honors include the Aaron Copland Award, the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize, and an award from Taiwan’s Council for Cultural Affairs (now Ministry of Culture).

Her compositions have achieved international acclaim, with performances spanning the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australasia. Her works have been championed by renowned ensembles such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Lydian and Alexander string quartets. She has received numerous high-profile commissions from organizations including the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, alongside many individual musicians.

A native of Taiwan, Chang began her intensive music training in piano, voice, and music theory at the age of six, and started seriously pursuing composition as a career at the age of fourteen. Following her graduation from the National Taiwan Normal University, she came to the United States in 1994 and received her graduate degrees from Boston University (M.M.) and Brandeis University (Ph.D.). After teaching at UC Davis for seven years, Yu-Hui moved back to the east coast to join the Brandeis University composition faculty in 2006.

Deeply invested in mentoring the next generation, Chang actively teaches and coaches young musicians. Beyond her faculty role at Brandeis, she has served as a Guest Composer at the Composers Conference and the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. She has held distinguished residencies at the University of Utah, Tulane University, and Taipei National University of the Arts, and has guest-lectured at the Julliard School, Boston University, and UC Berkeley. Her music has been featured globally at major festivals, and a dedicated “Works & Process” feature at the New York Guggenheim Museum.

In January 2024, Yu-Hui’s portrait CD “Mind Like Water” was released by New Focus Recordings. More of her music may be found in albums released by labels including Innova, Ravello, Azica, Centaur, and MSR Classics. She also appears as a conductor in composer Ross Bauer’s CD “Ritual Fragments” and as a pianist in a CD titled “Tribute to Chou Wen-chung”, both released by the Albany label. As an exponent of contemporary music performance, Yu-Hui previously served as a co-artistic director of Empyrean Ensemble and Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble. Collectively she curated more than seventy concerts.