Composer Chen awarded commission

Composer Chen awarded commission

BY MARGOT DIMOND
Rice News staff

Shih-Hui Chen, assistant professor of composition and theory at the Shepherd School of Music, is one of seven composers awarded a commission for new musical works by the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation Inc.

Shih-Hui Chen

Founded in 1988 at the University of California–Davis,the Empyrean Ensemble will perform Chen’s commissioned work, scored for voice and chamber ensemble.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen came to the United States in 1982. She received her master’s degree from Northern Illinois University and her doctoral degree from Boston University. Her work has been performed many times by such ensembles as the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Her music frequently appears in programs abroad.

Chen is the recipient of many awards, fellowships and grants — from the Fromm Music Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Meet the Composer Program, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute at Harvard, the Bellagio Rockefeller Foundation and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Recent recognition includes an American Academy in Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Barlow Commission.

She has served as composer in residence at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute. She is a music adviser for the Formosa Chamber Music Society and an active member of Musiqa (a composers’ collective based in Houston) and the Asian Composers’ League.

Arthur Gottschalk, professor and chair of music theory and composition at the Shepherd School, said Chen’s honor is well-deserved. “Shih-Hui Chen is one of the fastest-rising stars in today’s musical firmament,” he said. “She is also one of the Shepherd School’s most well-liked personalities, by both her students and colleagues.”

The Serge Koussevitzky Foundation and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation of New York perpetuate Serge Koussevitzky’s lifelong efforts to encourage contemporary composers. Koussevitzky was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, where he commissioned such works as Ravel’s “Piano Concerto” and Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms.” He also founded the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, which commissioned some of the most famous works of the last century, including Bartók’s “Concerto for Orchestra,” Copland’s “Symphony No. 3” and Britten’s “Peter Grimes.”

The tradition of commissioning new works continues on an annual basis with a competition that is open to performing organizations and composers worldwide. Performing groups must submit an application for a composer they would like to jointly commission with the foundations and commit to its performance within two years of its completion.

Manuscripts of commissioned works are deposited in the Library of Congress Music Division.

For more information on this award, go to <www.loc.gov/today/pr/2005/05-029.html>.