Chien-Yu Huang is a Taiwanese composer, an appointed composer at MangoWork Studio, and composer-in-residence with the Taiwan Artists Symphony Orchestra and Baroque Camerata. His work spans concert music, film, theater, and interdisciplinary productions, drawing on diverse Eastern and Western musical influences to shape a musical language distinguished by vivid sonorities, layered timbres, and dynamic energy. His music has been performed in Taiwan, the United States, Austria, Czechia, Japan, South Korea, and China, and he continues to receive commissions from orchestras, performers, and arts organizations in Taiwan and abroad.

In 2026, his first album of original compositions, White Clouds & Grey Dogs: Echoes in Flux, was released by Navona Records, the classical music imprint of the U.S. record label PARMA Recordings, and received a Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards. In the same year, two of his works each received a Gold Prize in Composition at the World Classical Music Awards. His 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, where the performance received the SCL Festival Jury Award, and was performed again at the 2026 Musica Orbis Prague Festival.

Huang has received commissions from orchestras, arts organizations, and performers. He has collaborated with ensembles including the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Ukraine (Kyiv Philharmonic), Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Wind Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Cello4, and Viva Flauti! Ensemble, and has received commissions from organizations including the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra, National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan, and National Symphony Orchestra. His work has received commissioned-work grants from the National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan) and has been performed at the National Flute Association’s Annual Convention in the United States. His music has been presented at venues including Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, National Theater, National Taichung Theater, and Weiwuying, as well as the New England Conservatory of Music and UCLA in the United States, the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein in Austria, Mayakovsky Hall in Prague, Czechia, Fukushima City Concert Hall and Chiba City Cultural Center Art Hall in Japan, Yongsan Art Hall in South Korea, and Peking University in China.

In addition to concert music, he has long been active in film, theater, and commercial music production. In film scoring, he received an Honorable Mention in The Indie Gathering International Film Scoring Competition (2010), and his work was selected as one of the top 30 scores in CINE’s Film Scoring Competition for Emerging Composers (2014). His score for animation director Po-Chou Chi’s short film The Lighthouse won Best Original Score at the Los Angeles New Wave International Film Festival and received Best Original Score nominations from the Maverick Movie Awards and the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival. As of February 2026, The Lighthouse had amassed more than 2.9 million views on YouTube. Film and television productions to which he has contributed scoring or music production have collectively received more than one hundred selections, awards, and invited screenings at festivals and competitions in Taiwan and abroad. Notable recognitions include advancing to the Los Angeles regional semifinals in the Animation category of the Student Academy Awards; nominations for the Golden Bell Awards and Taipei Film Awards; a Silver Award at the ASIFA-Hollywood AEF Student Animation Festival; and screenings at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Sapporo International Short Film Festival & Market, and the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner.

His work in film and interdisciplinary media has also extended to major official events and commercial productions, including music for the official title sequence of the 54th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival; music production for the visual arts segment of the 53rd Golden Horse Awards Ceremony; operatic aria arrangements for the 25th Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music; and the march for the 21st Summer Deaflympics Taipei. From 2011 to 2013, he was a contracted advertising composer for HTC. The stage production Water Ghost, City God, for which he participated in the music production, was released on CD by Warner Music in 2006 and was nominated for Best Classical Album at the 18th Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music. His diverse creative and interdisciplinary work also earned him second place in Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture Cultural and Creative Value-Adding Competition in 2014. His recent screen credits include the children’s animated series Deer May, the Public Television Service (Taiwan) series Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner (later made available on Netflix for an extended period), Haru and Porky, and the documentary film Phil’s Journey.

Huang’s works have received recognition in numerous national and international composition competitions and calls for works. Selected honors include selection for Vox Novus’s Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame: 15 One-Minute Arias for Soprano Solo (2024); selection for the Juventas New Music Ensemble’s Call for Works Featuring Flute (2024); Special Prize (Special Mention) in the ISAC International Popular Music Composition Competition (2023); selection for the Taipei Symphony Orchestra’s Call for Mandarin-Language Opera Works (2020); Grand Prize in the Physician’s Chamber Orchestra of Taiwan’s Call for Scores for the 30th Anniversary Concert (2020); winner of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra’s 40th Anniversary Call for Orchestral Works (2009); regional winner in Region I of the SCI/ASCAP Student Commission Competition (2008); winner of ERM Media’s Masterworks of the New Era Competition (2008); and recipient of the Award of Excellence from the Tsang-Houei Hsu Cultural and Art Foundation’s Competition for the Selection and Performance of Outstanding Works by Young Composers (2005).

Huang received his B.F.A. in Music from National Taiwan Normal University in 2005, his M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2008, and his Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2014. While studying abroad, he received scholarships and graduate teaching assistantships and was awarded the Taiwanese government’s Study Abroad Scholarship (2010–2012). His composition teachers included Mao-Shuen Chen, Hope Lee, John Mallia, Paul Chihara, David Lefkowitz, Ian Krouse, and Mark Carlson; he also received additional instruction from Larry Sitsky, Jim Cotter, Richard Cornell, and Bright Sheng through masterclasses, lectures, and workshops. In music production, he studied mixing with recording and mixing engineer Tim Starnes, whose credits include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and film-music production techniques with composer Daniel Rojas, who formerly worked at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions.

Since returning to Taiwan in 2014, Huang has taught at National Taiwan Normal University, Fu Jen Catholic University, Soochow University, National Sun Yat-sen University, the University of Taipei, National Tsing Hua University, and National Taiwan University of Arts. He previously served as a full-time Assistant Professor in the Department of Ethnomusicology at Nanhua University. He is currently a full-time Associate Professor in the Department of Music at National University of Tainan.

 

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