Kai-Young Chan
*1 June 1989
Works by Kai-Young Chan
Biography
A Hong Kong-based composer, Kai-Young Chan focuses on turning constraints into creativity, with a specialization in transforming the inherent musicality of Cantonese texts into creative devices for both vocal and instrumental forces. His music is performed across the continents by Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony, PRISM Quartet, Mivos Quartet, and Hong Kong New Ensemble, among other prominent performers. His selected works are released on Ablaze, Albany, innova, and PARMA records, with scores published by Universal Editions (Vienna), Editions Peters (London), and Edition ICOT (Tokyo).
Chan is part of the first artist delegation of American Composers Forum to the Havana Festival for Contemporary Music in Cuba, a historic tour documented by the National Public Radio. His music is featured in two editions of ISCM World Music Days, International Rostrum of Composers, June in Buffalo (USA), International Forum of New Music Manuel Enriquez (Mexico), Risuonanze Festival (Italy), and Internationalen Ferienkurse Darmstadt (Germany). Chan is a winner of the CASH Golden Sail Award, First Prize of the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, Keuris Composition Prize, the Emissary Quartet Composition Competition, Dolce Suono Ensemble Composition Competition, CASH Music Scholarships, among other honors.
As a Benjamin Franklin Fellow, Chan earned his PhD in Music Composition from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves as Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a two-time recipient of the Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award and has received multiple teaching grants to develop online videos and games for music theory pedagogy. Through research grants from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and other institutions, he explores how the text-setting constraints in Cantonese can serve as a catalyst for creativity in contemporary music. Through development of education materials and workshops, he advocates for the international representation and appreciation of Cantonese musics.
About the music
Kai-Young Chan focuses on the integration of nuance, relevance, and resonance in music that converses with societies and cultures. His creative practice centers on turning constraints into creative resources, such as the transformation of text-setting constraints in the tonal Cantonese language into an algorithmic composition device in contemporary idioms. His output includes music for orchestras, and chamber ensembles, as well as music for voice, electronic media, and Chinese instruments.