Echopedia

Yuan-Chen Li (李元貞)

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Yuan-Chen Li (李元貞)

Yuan-Chen Li (李元貞) is a Taiwan-born composer and educator listed in the |TAH Foundation Who’s Who (#1088, 2016/06) and musician series (#12, 2014/10). The TAH musician profile dates her birth to 1980 and places her 2016–2017 teaching at Reed College, Portland, Oregon. This page absorbs the vault archive of those two TAH posts (knowledge/web-archives/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/posts/musician12.md, …/whoswho1088.md). It is not a live résumé.

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Yuan-Chen Li
  • Chinese: 李元貞
  • Born: 1980, Taiwan (musician #12); Who’s Who birth year blank
  • U.S. arrival: 2006 (Who’s Who: first year in the U.S.; city/state blank)
  • Geography: Taiwan; New Haven (Yale); Chicago (University of Chicago); Portland, OR (Reed; Who’s Who address)
  • Core roles: composer; visiting professor (Reed College, 2016–2017 as of the TAH text)
  • Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who / musician encyclopedia
  • Website (as printed on TAH): https://yuanchenli.wordpress.com/

Overview

Li first arrived on the contemporary music scene in Taiwan with her chamber piece Zang (the funeral / 《葬》) in 2000. In 2003, her orchestral work Awakening / 《春日醉起言志》 won a prize at the Asian Music Festival in Tokyo from the Asian Composers’ League and was premiered by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. TAH’s English musician copy describes later work as transforming Chinese phonology, Taiwanese chamber and aboriginal music, Asian traditional arts, literature, and Buddhism into technique for solo, chamber, and orchestra on Western and Chinese instruments.

The Chinese musician copy adds early study with 吳丁連 (composition / classical) and piano with 梁孔玲; college study at 臺北藝術大學 with 洪崇焜 and 楊聰賢; guqin and phonology with 李楓 and 李殿魁; nō-kan study with 瀧澤成實 during the 2000 Asia-Pacific arts festival. U.S. study (from 2006) led to a Yale Artist Diploma (2008, Martin Bresnick and others) and a University of Chicago Ph.D. in music composition (2015). Primary Chicago advisors named: composers Marta Ptaszynska and Shulamit Ran, conductor Cliff Colnot, musicologist Martha Feldman, theorist Lawrence Zbikowski. Dissertation work: cello concerto 「漂點」 / “Wandering Viewpoint” plus a paper on vocal composition and secondhand Holocaust experience.

Degree-label conflict inside TAH: Who’s Who #1088 lists Taipei University of the Arts B.A. / M.S.; musician #12 lists B.F.A. (2003) and M.F.A. (2006). This page records both labels rather than choosing one.

Education

From TAH Who’s Who #1088 (table) and musician #12 (narrative):

  • Taipei University of the Arts — B.A. (Who’s Who) / B.F.A. 2003 (musician #12)
  • Taipei University of the Arts — M.S. (Who’s Who) / M.F.A. 2006 (musician #12)
  • Yale University School of Music — 2008 — Artist Diploma (composition with Martin Bresnick)
  • University of Chicago — 2015 — Ph.D., Music Composition

Pre-college: ten years of composition and classical study with Ting-Lien Wu / 吳丁連 (musician #12).

Employment

  • Reed College, Portland, OR — visiting professor, 2016–2017 (musician #12: advanced harmony / atonal music, form and analysis, composition, East Asian new music seminar, college orchestra). Who’s Who #1088 lists the same post as “-present” on a 2016-06 profile; treat 2016–2017 as the dated teaching window in the longer source.
  • Teaching / outreach named in musician #12: Cedarhurst School outreach composer (2008); Yale, New Haven secondary arts, and University of Chicago courses (2008, 2012–15).

Timeline

  • 1980 — born, Taiwan (musician #12).
  • 1998 — enters 臺北藝術大學 (Chinese musician copy).
  • 2000 — chamber work Zang / 《葬》; nō-kan study during 亞太藝術節.
  • 2001 — 關渡新創新聲 (Kuan-Du Musical Soiree).
  • 2003 — B.F.A. (musician #12); Awakening / 《春日醉起言志》 prize, Asian Music Festival, Tokyo; Tune in to Taiwan; New Ideal Dance Festival.
  • 2005 — 《間奏曲：參》教育部文藝獎室內樂首獎 (Chinese copy).
  • 2006 — M.F.A.; first year in the U.S. (Who’s Who); 客家 singer 賴碧霞 accompaniment arrangement noted in Chinese copy.
  • 2006–08 — New Music New Haven (Yale).
  • 2007 — Soundbridges (Berlin); Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
  • 2008 — Yale Artist Diploma; The Female Form (New York); Composer/Pianist series (New England, 2008–9).
  • 2009 — Peace Cross-strait Orchestra Concert; University of Chicago admission / full scholarship (Chinese copy).
  • 2010 — Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (Taipei Artist Village); 《福爾摩沙之民歌新聲集》 arrangement project.
  • 2011 — Taiwan Ministry of Education study-abroad scholarship; mentorship with Cliff Colnot (notation, rehearsal, editorial).
  • 2012 — ACL Tel-Aviv; Thailand International Composition Festival; IMANI Winds (New York); NPAC 「樂典」 commission 《間奏曲：商》.
  • 2014-10-11 — TAH musician #12 published.
  • 2014 — Northwestern NUNC! (Chicago).
  • 2015 — Ph.D.; American Composers Orchestra EarShot (Buffalo); Contempo (Chicago, 2010–2015).
  • 2016-06-18 — TAH Who’s Who #1088 published.
  • 2016 — EarTaxi New Music Festival (Chicago); visiting professor, Reed College (2016–2017 window).

Works (named on TAH musician #12)

  • 《葬》 / Zang (chamber, 2000)
  • 《春日醉起言志》 / Awakening (orchestra, 2003)
  • 《間奏曲：參》 (master’s representative work; guqin in mixed ensemble)
  • 《貓嬉》 (zheng solo with performance elements)
  • 《福爾摩沙之民歌新聲集》 (2010 song-set arrangement)
  • 古箏協奏曲《飛天》; 大提琴協奏曲《漂點》 / “Wandering Viewpoint”
  • 《間奏曲：商》 (2012 NPAC 樂典)

Recordings named: 《台灣現代箏樂集一》(采風), 《台灣現代音樂三》(十方), Formosa Caprices (Griffin).

Network

Collaborators / teachers named in musician #12 (plain text unless a person page exists): 吳丁連, 梁孔玲, 洪崇焜, 楊聰賢, Martin Bresnick, Michael Friedmann, Marta Ptaszynska, Shulamit Ran, Cliff Colnot, Martha Feldman, Lawrence Zbikowski; conductor Paul Ching-Po Chiang / 江靖波; ensembles Moment Musicaux Philharmonia, National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan), Chai-Found Music Workshop / 采風; National Performing Arts Center (Taiwan); soloists Li-Ya Huang, Tsai-Pei Lun.

Institutions: Taipei University of the Arts; Yale; University of Chicago; Reed College.

Quotes

Chicago Classical Review on “Wandering Viewpoint” (cited 2015.4.24 in musician #12): Li’s compositional voice “original and somewhat difficult to describe,” “engaging.”

連憲升 (2008), on 《春日醉起言志》, as quoted in the Chinese TAH copy: 「某種程度似乎總結了近半個世紀台灣追求二十世紀『音樂現代性』的成果」.

李子聲 (2010), on 《間奏曲：參》: the qin is not treated as a conventional soloist but mixed as an equal among ten Western instruments.

Family

No filled family fields on the TAH Who’s Who profile (Husband / Daughter / Son all “-”).

Sources

  • |TAH Foundation
  • |taiwaneseamericanhistory.org
  • |TAHS — sibling history org; not the TAH Who’s Who publisher
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whoswho1088||TAH Who’s Who #1088]]
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/musician12||TAH musician #12]]

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