Chen Yi

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Name: Chen Yi
Bio: As a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries, Dr. Chen Yi is a recipient of the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. She has been Lorena Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of Music and Dance in the University of Missouri-Kansas City since 1998. She was elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2005, and the American Academy of Arts & Letters in 2019.

Born in China, Ms. Chen received bachelor and master degrees from the Central Conservatory in Beijing, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University in the City of New York. Her composition teachers included Profs. Wu Zu-qiang, Chou Wen-chung, and Mario Davidovsky. She has served as Composer-in-Residence for the Women’s Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and Aptos Creative Arts Center (1993–96) supported by Meet The Composer, and taught on the composition faculty at Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University (1996–98). She has also been Distinguished Visiting Professor in China since 2006.

Fellowships and commissioning awards were received from Guggenheim Foundation (1996), American Academy of Arts and Letters (1996), Fromm Foundation at Harvard University (1994), Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress (1997), and National Endowment for the Arts (1994). Honors include the first prizes from the Chinese National Composition Competition (1985, 2012), the Lili Boulanger Award (1993), the NYU Sorel Medal Award (1996), the CalArts/Alpert Award (1997), the UT Eddie Medora King Composition Prize (1999), the ASCAP Concert Music Award (2001), the Elise Stoeger Award (2002) from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Friendship Ambassador Award from Edgar Snow Fund (2002), the UMKC Kauffman Award in Artistry/Scholarship and Faculty Service (2006, 2012), and Pulitzer Prize Finalist with Si Ji for orchestra (2006). Honorary Doctorates are from Lawrence University (2002), Baldwin-Wallace College (2008), University of Portland (2009), The New School University (2010), and University of Hartford (2016). She has received the Sterling Patron Award of Mu Phi Epsilon International Fraternity in 2011 and the Society for American Music Honorary Member Award in 2018.

Her music is published by Theodore Presser Company, performed world wide, and recorded in over 100 CDs, on Bis, New Albion, Teldec (w/Grammy Award for Colors of Love), New World (w/NPR Top 10 Classical Music Album Award for Sound of the Five), Albany, Naxos, BMOP/sound, XAS Records, Bridge, Centaur, Innova, Delos, Angel, Nimbus, Cala, Avant, Atma, Hugo, Koch International Classics, Eroica, Capstone, Quartz, and China Record Corporation since 1986.

Most recent premieres have included Introduction, Andante, and Allegro by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and Fire for 12 players by Grossman Ensemble at Logan Center Performance Hall in the University of Chicago in 2019; piano concerto Four Spirits by China Philharmonic in Beijing and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016; Totem Poles for organ solo at AGO national conference in Kansas City, Pearle River Overture by Guangzhou Symphony in China, and Southern Scenes for flute, pipa and orchestra by the Hawaii Symphony in Honolulu in 2018.

Chen Yi is the Lorena Searcy Cravens/ Millsap/ Missouri Distinguished Professor of Composition at UMKC. Her published works can be found in the library catalog
Professional website: https://conservatory.umkc.edu/profiles/faculty-directory/chen-yi.html
Scores: ...As Like a Raging Fire...; The Ancient Chinese Beauty; Ancient Dances; Angel Island Passages; At the Kansas City Chinese New Year Concert; Ba Yin (The Eight Sounds); Ballad, Dance and Fantasy; Bamboo Dance; Bamboo Song; Bright Moonlight; Burning; Caramoor's Summer; Celebration; China West Suite; Chinese Ancient Dances: for Clarinet and Piano; Chinese Ancient Dances: for B-flat Soprano Saxophone and Piano; Chinese Fables; Chinese Folk Dance Suite; Chinese Mountain Songs; Colors of Naobo: For a Pair of Small Chinese cymbals; Concerto for Reeds; Distance Can't Keep Us Two Apart; Dragon Rhyme; Early Spring; Energetic Duo; From Old Peking Folklore; Feng II; Fountains of KC; Four Spirits; The Han Figurines; Happy Rain on a Spring Night; Happy Tune; Impressions from the Chinese Zodiac; Introduction, Andante, and Allegro; Ji-Dong-Nuo; Jing Marimba; Jingu Suite; KC Capriccio; Know You How Many Petals Falling?; Landscape; Memory: for Cello; Memory: for Flute; Memory: for Viola; Memory: for Violin; Mountain Song; Nian Hua; Night Thoughts; Ning; Northern Scenes; Not Alone; & Happy Birthday to PRISM; Ox Tail Dance; Plum Blossom; Septet; Shady Grove; Shuo Chang; Si Ji (Four Seasons); The Soulful and the Perpetual; Southern Scenes: A Double Concerto for Flute, Pipa, and Orchestra; Tachun (Spring Outing); Three Bagatelles from China West: for Clarinet and Piano; Three Bagatelles from China West: for Flute and Clarinet; Three Bagatelles from China West: Flute and Guitar; Three Bagatelles from China West: for Flute and Piano; Three Bagatelles from China West: for Guanzi and Sheng; Three Bagatelles from China West: for Two Flutes; Three Bagatelles from China West: for Violin and Cello; Three Dances from China South; Tibetan Tunes; To the New Millennium; Tone poem; Totem Poles; Wind; The West Lake; Woodwind Quintet No. 3; Wu Yu; Xuan; YangKo

Shining a Light 21st Century Music by Composers from Underrepresented Groups

Shining a Light: 21^st Century Music from Underrepresented Composers

Chen Yi

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