CHAO, Ching-Wen

Ching-Wen Chao is a Taiwanese composer born in 1973. She studied composition at National Taiwan Normal University from 1991 to 1995 and later pursued doctoral studies in the United States. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from Stanford University, where she studied with Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough, and Chris Chafe and worked in electronic and computer music at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). archive.ncafroc.org.tw
Chao has taught at Stanford University and has also lectured at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently Associate Professor of Composition at National Taiwan Normal University, where her areas of expertise include composition and curatorial practice. NTNU Music
Her compositional output includes instrumental, orchestral, choral, and electroacoustic music, and she has been particularly active in combining acoustic instruments with electronic sound and contemporary multimedia practices. Her works have been presented at festivals and venues across Asia, Europe, and North America, and she has collaborated with ensembles including the Arditti String Quartet, Klangforum Wien, PHACE, Nieuw Ensemble, California EAR Unit, Eighth Blackbird, and the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne.
Among her works are the electroacoustic composition SoundStates, which explores transformations between different states of matter through digitally processed sounds, and Dark Light, commissioned and premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble in Amsterdam. Her choral composition Sweet Potatoes, for two-part female voices and piano, has been included in the repertoire of the Taipei International Choral Competition. In 2020 she also composed Trees, Where Lives Come From for the Tabernacle Women’s Choir. Center for New Music
Chao has received several composition awards, including First Prize in the Asian Composers League Young Composers Competition and First Prize in the Music Taipei Composition Competition. Her work has also been discussed in publications devoted to contemporary music, including Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. In addition to composing, she has worked as a curator and creative director, contributing to interdisciplinary concert and theatre productions in Taiwan