Dr. Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang is a Taiwanese composer whose work draws on the eclectic nature of her musical palette, ranging from Western and non-Western classics to jazz and pop. Described by the New York Times as “Feldmanesque,” “punchy” and “frenetic,” she composes music that seeks to capture the transience of momentary beauty and individual identity through the juxtaposition of musical oppositions and through constant transformation and flow, revealing complexity within simplicity.
Dr. Wang’s music has been performed across North America, Europe, and Asia at venues including Carnegie Hall, Atlantic Center for the Arts, MASS MoCA, Aspen Music Festival, Roulette, The Stone, Hindemith Foundation (Switzerland), Logos Foundation (Belgium), Herz Jesu-Kirche (Germany), Villa Romano (Italy), Kitara Hall (Japan), Hong Kong Arts Centre (Hong Kong), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), and Song-Yi Concert Hall (Taiwan). She has collaborated with ensembles and performers such as Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, MIVOS Quartet, members of Eighth Blackbird, pianists Eric Huebner, Vicky Chow, Jenny Q Chai, conductors David Gilbert, Brad Lubman, Paul Chiang, and visual artists Alice Grassi and Takeshi Moro.
In 2010, Dr. Wang’s solo piano piece Intimate Rejection was released on Jenny Q Chai’s solo album “New
York Love Song” on the ArpaViva Foundation Inc label. Dr. Chai also premiered Current, which was reviewed as a “vibrant work,” and “the high point of the night, [full of] icily misty tonalities.”
Dr. Wang’s music has been broadcast
on WNYC and WQXR, and on Taukay Edizioni Musicali (Italy) and on Campo de Santa Clara, Lisbon (Portugal). She is the
winner of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music competition, the 15th Annual Piano Commission Award at the University of Illinois, the Look and Listen
Festival Composition Prize, and the Award
of Literature and Art Competition (2008 and 2010), and was recognized by International Music Prize, Fast Forward Austin Festival, Margaret Blackburn
Composition Competition, and National Association of Composers, among others. She is also the recipient of an
Encore Grant from the American Composers Forum, a Composer Assistance Program Award from New Music USA, and several ASCAPlus Award
from the ASCAP Foundation. Her scores are now available through BabelScores, an online publishing platform based in France.
Dr. Wang has been a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, Domaine Forget, Composit Music Festival, MusicX Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Pacific Music Festival, Tutti New Music Festival, Bang on a Can Music Festival, Festival of Women Composers, Society of Composers National Conference, an associate artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and has worked with Steven Stucky, George Tsontakis, Robert Beaser, Matthias Pintscher, Joel Hoffman, David Felder, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and Lera Auerbach. She has studied with Nils Vigeland, Reynold Tharp, Erik Lund, Erin Gee, Stephen Taylor, Gordon Shi-Wen Chin, Wan-Chen Huang, and participated in master classes with Tristan Murail, Marco Stroppa, John Corigliano, John Harbison, Fabien Lévy, Joshua Fineberg, Stephen Hartke, Cindy Cox, and Michael Hersch. Dr. Wang holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. For more information, please visit www.AshleyWang.com
Reviews
New York Times - Current - Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 4/20/2012
Sequenza 21 - Current - Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 4/20/2012
Lucid Culture - Current - Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 4/20/2012
Sequenza 21 - Current - Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, 4/4/2012
New York Times - Intimate Rejection; June in Buffalo, 6/4/2010