Chen Yi

Kansas City, MO

Chen Yi
Totem Poles
Solo Organ
James Higdon
Tuesday, July 3 10 am 11:30 am

As a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries, Dr. Chen Yi was born in 1953 in Guangzhou, China. She is the Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of Music and Dance in the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and the recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her music is published by Theodore Presser Company, commissioned and performed world wide by Yo-Yo Ma, Evelyn Glennie, Yehudi Menuhin, Emanuel Ax, Michala Petri, Wu Man, Mira Wang, Chanticleer, Music From China, the Shanghai and Ying quartets, Rascher and Prism sax quartets, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Seattle, Pacific, and Singapore symphonies, the St. Paul, St. Luke's and Stuttgart chamber orchestras, the Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Carnegie Hall, BBC Proms and Lucerne Music festivals, among others, and recorded on Bis, New Albion, New World (with a Top 10 Classical Music Album Award from NPR in 2009), Teldec (with a Grammy Award sung by Chanticleer), Albany, Naxos, among other labels. Chen Yi has received bachelor and master degrees in music composition (1983 and 1986) from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree (1993) from Columbia University in the City of New York. Major composition teachers have been Profs. Wu Zu-qiang, Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky. Dr. Chen has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2005. She has also been appointed to the Cheung Kong Scholar Visiting Professor at the CCoM by the China Ministry of Education in 2006, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Tianjin Conservatory in China in 2012.

• Chen is family name, Yi is personal name. Chen Yi can be referred to Dr. Chen, Prof. Chen, Ms. Chen, or Chen Yi, but not Dr. Yi, Prof. Yi, or Ms. Yi.