Archived News | Return to News Center

March 11, 2011

ULM to feature Grammy-award winner Chen Yi March 14-15

The Division of Music at the University of Louisiana at Monroe will bring ULM’s 2011 Composer-in-Residence, Grammy-award winner Chen Yi, to campus Monday and Tuesday, March 14-15.

Monday night's lecture begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall and will feature Chen Yi speaking about her life in China and how she grew up to be one of the world's leading female composers.

There will also be a video presentation of some of her works as well as an audio presentation of her most famous orchestral composition.

Tuesday night's concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Brown Auditorium and will feature larger-scale works for chorus, band, and then move to the Emy-Lou Biedenharn Recital Hall to feature smaller-scale works by the composer for chamber ensembles and soloists.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Chen’s visit is made possible by a generous grant from the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council.  

She currently holds the post of Lorena Searcy Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor of Composition at the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

She is a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1996) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1994), as well as the Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1996).

Other honors include:

• First prize in the Chinese National Composition Competition (1985)
  
  
• The Lili Boulanger Award from the National Women Composers Resource Center (1993)
  
  
• New York University’s Sorel Medal (1996)
  
  
• The CalArts/Alpert Award (1997)
  
  
• A Grammy Award (1999)
  
  
• The University of Texas Eddie Medora King Composition Prize (1999)
  
  
• The Adventurous Programming and Concert Music awards from ASCAP (1999 and 2001, respectively)
  
  
• The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Elise Stoeger Award (2002)
  
  
• The Edgar Snow Memorial Fund’s Friendship Ambassador Award (2002)

Chen holds honorary doctorates from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio, the University of Portland in Oregon and The New School University in New York City.

PLEASE NOTE: Some links and e-mail addresses in these archived news stories may no longer work, and some content may include events which are no longer relevent, or reference individuals and/or organizations no longer associated with ULM.