Tsai-yun Huang - Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Tsai-yun Huang received her B.A. in music at the Taipei National University of the Arts. She is currently a D.M.A. student studying composition at UIUC. She was the winner of The Ignacy Paderewski International Composition Competition, the ICE 21st Century Young Composers Project in 2006, the 21st Century Piano Commission Competition in 2006 and the UI Symphony Orchestra Composition Commission in 2007.
She has also received Honorable Mention of the composition competition held by the Council for Cultural Affairs in Taiwan in 2002 and a performance at National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center. In addition, she was the finalist of ASCAP Young Composers Competition in 2007 and the finalist of VI International Contemporary Music Contest "Città di Udine" at Italy in 2006. Her pieces have received many performances at festivals and conferences such as the Marathon Concert of 2006 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performances Practice at the New England Conservatory of Music with Michael Finnissy in residence, the 4th Annual ICE Fest in Chicago, 5th Annual Women in New Music Festival at CSU, The WEALR project in Amsterdam, Seamus Conference, Midwest Composer’s Symposium, Electronic Music Midwest, Kentucky New Music Festival, Chasm New Music Festival at the FSU, New Music Festival at WIU. Her performances in workshops include the Bang on a Can All-Starts reading session at the Tryon Festival Theatre, the Kronos String Quartet at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Recently, her piece was performed at Carnegie Weill Hall as well as at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY) by the string duo Gang of Two. A newly commissioned piece for Five-String Electric Violin was performed at the University of San Diego in April of 2008, Imaginary Place was performed at JIB by SurPlus. In addition to being a composer, Tsai-yun is also a pianist, Pipa and Linqin player. She has recently performed her piano piece at the Illinois State University, the University of Kentucky and Western Illinois University.