Ching Wen Chao Chao, Ching Wen

Ching Wen Chao holds a doctorate in music composition from Stanford University and teaches in the Department of Music at National Taiwan Normal University. In the United States, Chao studied with the European contemporary masters Jonathan Harvey and Brian Ferneyhough, with Chris Chafe, director of Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, and with the electronic music pioneer Jean-Claude Risset; at National Taiwan Normal University, Chao studied with Professor 陳茂萱. Alongside instrumental works, Chao has in recent years also devoted much attention to electronic music, with the support of CCRMA at Stanford.

The choral work “Tsang Tse” (鑼鼓運動) was selected for the ISCM World Music Days in October–November 2012, hosted by Belgium, where the organizers programmed it as the finale of the eleven-day festival; it was also selected for the 2012 Polyfollia festival in France, where Taipei Chamber Singers performed it on tour. Recent works have been discussed in articles published by the French music publisher Éditions L’Harmattan (Paris) and the German new-music journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Chao’s honours include First Prize in the Young Composers Competition of the Asian Composers League, First Prize in the Music Taipei Composition Competition, First Prize in the NTCH Fanfare Composition Competition, and the Ministry of Education Literary and Arts Award. Chao’s works have been commissioned or performed by leading new-music ensembles in Europe and the US, including the Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble On_line Vienna, Klangforum Wien, California EAR Unit, St. Lawrence String Quartet, VOXNOVA, EARPLAY, eighth blackbird and the CalArts ensemble, as well as by Taiwanese ensembles including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the Taiwan Wind Ensemble, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Moment Musical and Taipei Chamber Singers, and have been heard many times at international new-music festivals such as the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, the Dresden Music Festival, the 38e Rugissants festival in France, the Asia-Pacific Music Festival and the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC).