“Original and poetic, full of emotion and pathos, not tied to the film but illustrating it. I felt envious that I would never write something like this, which I guess is the ultimate compliment. Congrats whoever you are, you got it right! “

— The three judges of The 2^nd Annual CINE Film Scoring Competition for Emerging Composers:
Mychael Danna (Academy Awards winner, Life of Pi film composer), George S. Clinton (Chair of Berklee College of Music’s Film Scoring Department),
Daniel Carlin (Chair of Film Scoring at USC’s Thornton School of Music)

 

Born in Taoyuan, Taiwan, in 1983, composer Chien-Yu Huang’s music has been performed by ensembles and soloists worldwide. Chien-Yu’s music combines many elements into an invigorating language that blends Eastern and Western influences. His compositions, spanning concerts, films, and theaters, have earned him numerous accolades from various compositional fields.

Mr. Huang has won numerous awards in composition that include: Selection of the Vox Novus’ Fifteen Minutes of Fame (2024), Selection of the Juventas New Music Ensemble’s Call for Works Featuring Flute (2024), Special Prize (Special Mentioned) of the ISAC International Popular Music Composition Competition (2023), Selection of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra’s Call for Opera in Mandarin Chinese (2020), Grand Prize of the Physician’s Chamber Orchestra of Taiwan’s Call for Score for the 30^th Anniversary Concert (2020), Winner of the 1^st region in the SCI/ASCAP Student Composition Competition (2008), Winner of the ERM Media’s Masterworks of the New Era Competition (2008), Winner of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra’s Call for Orchestral Work for the 40^th Anniversary (2009), Award of Excellence of the Tsang-Houei Hsu Cultural and Art Foundation’s Competition for the Selection and Performance of Outstanding Works by the Youth (2005), Honorable Mention of the Ministry of Education of Taiwan’s Literature and Art Awards Competition (2005), Finalist of the Council for Cultural Affairs of Taiwan’s Formosa Composition Competition (Chamber Music Category), Winners of the two categories of the National Taiwan Arts Education Center’s Teaching Materials of Taiwanese Local Music for the String Orchestra Composition Competition (2011), Selected Song by the Nantou County Government’s Sun Moon Lake Songwriting Contest (2011).

The international film scoring contests Huang has ever won include Honorable Mention by The Indie Gathering’s International Film Scoring Competition (2010) and Top 30 by the CINE’s Film Scoring Competition (2014). The score he composed for the short animation The Lighthouse, directed and animated by director Po Chou Chi, won the Award for Best Original Score from the Los Angeles New Wave International Film Festival in 2011. This animation was also Nominated for Best Original Score by the Maverick Movie Awards and the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival in 2010. This film has received over 2.5 million views on YouTube. The films he has scored for that have been nominated, awarded, or invited to screen have comprised more than 100 credits worldwide. They are the Student Academy Awards, the California Film Award, the Los Angeles Movie Award, the Student Annie Award, the Golden Bell Awards, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Sapporo International Short Film Festival & Market, the Hollywood Film Festival, among many others.

Mr. Huang has composed for significant official events and private enterprises that cover the music for the Official Title Design of the 54^th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, the music production for the 53^rd Golden Horse Awards Ceremony’s Visual Art, the rearranged opera arias for the ceremony of the 25^th Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music Competition, the marches for the 21^st Summer Deaflympics Taipei. Furthermore, he was a contracted composer for HTC (2011 – 2013). The music production of the stage drama Water Ghost, City God, in which he participated, was released on CD by Warner Music in 2006 and was a nominee for the Best Classical Album of the 18^th Golden Melody Awards. Because of the versatility of his outputs, Chien-Yu was runner-up in the Cultural Creative Value-Adding Expert Competition held by the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan in 2014. His work “Taiwan’s Mountains: Guardians of the Motherland,” commissioned by the Mazer Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, was performed at the 2023 Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria, and received the SCL Festival Jury Award.

Has received grants (for commissioned work) from the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan, and has music been presented at The National Flute Association’s Annual Convention; Chien-Yu’s compositions have been performed at many prestigious venues in his country, such as the National Concert Hall, the National Recital Hall, the National Theater Hall, the Weiwuying Opera House, the Weiwuying Concert Hall, the Weiwuying Recital Hall, the Novel Hall for Performing Arts, the Zhongcheng Auditorium of Zhongshan Hall in Taipei, the Guangfu Auditorium of Zhongshan Hall in Taipei, the eslite Performance Hall, etc. He also has his music played in the US, covering locations such as the New England Conservatory of Music, UCLA, and the Phoenix Convention Center. Other places include the Vienna Music Society in Austria, the Fukushima City Concert Hall in Japan, the Renmin University of China, the Peking University, and the Beijing Normal University in China. Since his return to Taiwan in 2014, Mr. Huang has taught at several universities, including the National Taiwan Normal University, the Fu Jen Catholic University, the Soochow University, the National Sun Yat-sen University, the University of Taipei, the National Tsing Hua University, and the National Taiwan University of Arts. Previously, he was a full-time faculty member at the Department of Ethnomusicology, Nanhua University. He is currently a full-time assistant professor at the Department of Music, National University of Tainan.

Chien-Yu Huang received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Department of Music at the National Taiwan Normal University in 2005. He obtained the university’s Mu-Dou Award for Student Excellence the following year. In 2008, Huang received his Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Department of Music at the University of California, Los Angeles in early 2014. In addition to the scholarships and TA Scholarships offered by schools while studying abroad, he also received the Study Abroad Scholarship granted by the Taiwan government. Chien-Yu’s composition teachers were Mao-Shuen Chen, Hope Lee, John Mallia, Paul Chihara, Ian Krouse, David Lefkowitz, and Mark Carlson. Additional studies included Larry Sitsky, Jim Cotter, Richard Cornell, and Bright Sheng. Moreover, he had private lessons in mixing and mastering with music editor/engineer Tim Starnes, who has worked for many blockbuster films, including The Lord of the Rings (2002, 2003), King Kong (2005), and Hugo (2011). Chien-Yu was also instructed in music production by Daniel Rojas, a Hollywood composer from the Remote Control Productions run by Hans Zimmer.

Apart from teaching, Chien-Yu is an appointed composer at the MangoWork Studio. He is regularly commissioned to write music for concerts, arranged works, commercials, films, and other visual media. The recent film projects he scores for also consist of the TV series Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner (available on Netflix), Haru and Porky, both from the Public Television Service, and the documentary film Phil’s Journey. Mr. Huang has collaborated with music groups, including the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Ukraine (Kyiv Philharmonic), the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra, the Kaohsiung City Wind Orchestra, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, the Cello⁴, the Viva Flauti! Flute Ensemble, etc. He has received commissions with arrangements and compositions from organizations like the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, the Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, etc.

 

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