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Biography
MELISSA HUI was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver, Canada. She received her D.M.A. from Yale University and M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. Her mentors include Jacob Druckman, Earl Kim and Mel Powell. Initially inspired by the haunting music of the African pygmies and Japanese gagaku court orchestra, she strives to create a personal music of ethereal beauty, intimate lyricism, and raucous violence. Her commissions include works for the Oregon Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Kronos Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, New Millennium Ensemble and Essential Music (NYC), Ensemble Antipodes (Switzerland), Dogs of Desire (of Albany Symphony), Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, New Music Concerts (Toronto), the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec (Montréal), Melody of China/Citywinds (San Francisco), Tapestry New Opera Works, and a soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated documentary, Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square. Her works have been performed throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, including performances by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, California EAR Unit, Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and at International Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), ISCM festivals in Switzerland and Croatia, Théatre de la Ville (Paris), Festival Sons d'Hiver (France), Merkin Hall, Focus Festival, and Music at the Anthology in New York City, Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Spoleto Festival, and L.A. Philharmonic's Green Umbrella series, among others. She is a founding member of the Common Sense Composers Collective. Her compositions have been released on CRI, UMMUS, Santa Fe New Music, Nisapa and Centredisc, including a CD of her solo and chamber works in 2006. Current projects include commissioned works for Ensemble Sospeso (NYC) and an oratorio based on a Cree myth with librettist Tomson Highway for Soundstreams Canada. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship (1997) and a Fromm Foundation commission (2000) as well as numerous grants and awards that include the Grand Prize of both the CBC and du Maurier/WSO Young Composers Competitions in Canada and finalist at the International Gaudeamus competition in Amsterdam. Now living in Montreal, she was a member of the composition faculty at Stanford University from 1994-2004.
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Melissa Hui was born in Hong Kong and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. She received her doctorate from Yale University and masters degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Her mentors include Mel Powell, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Morton Subotnick and Earl Kim.
Initially inspired by the haunting music of the African pygmies and Japanese gagaku court orchestra, she strives to create a personal music of ethereal beauty, intimate lyricism, and raucous violence.
Her commissions include works for the Oregon Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Kronos Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, New Millennium Ensemble and Essential Music (NYC), Ensemble Antipodes (Switzerland), Dogs of Desire (of Albany Symphony), Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, New Music Concerts (Toronto), the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec (Montréal), Melody of China/Citywinds (San Francisco), Tapestry New Opera Works, and a soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated documentary, Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square.
Her works have been performed throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, including performances by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, California EAR Unit, Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and at International Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), ISCM festivals in Switzerland and Croatia, Théatre de la Ville (Paris), Festival Sons d'Hiver (France), Merkin Hall, Focus Festival, and Music at the Anthology in New York City, Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Spoleto Festival, and L.A. Philharmonic's Green Umbrella series, among others.
With the Common Sense Composers Collective, founded in 1993, Melissa has collaborated with the New Millennium Ensemble, Dogs of Desire of the Albany Symphony, Meridian Arts Ensemble, American Baroque, Common Sense ensemble, and Essential Music. Two discs are available: a self-titled debut on CRI Emergency Music and The Shock of the Old with American Baroque on Santa Fe New Music.
She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Aaron Copland Fund, Meet the Composer, Opera.ca, ASCAP and Canada Council. Melissa won the Grand Prize of the CBC Young Composers' Competition and du Maurier/WSO Canadian Composers Competition, first prizes at SOCAN and ProCAN competitions, and was a finalist of the International Gaudeamus Music Competition. Her works are recorded on CRI, UMMUS, Santa Fe New Music, Centredisc, and Nisapa. Her most recent CD of solo and chamber works, And blue sparks burn, was released by Centredisc in 2006.
Current projects include commissioned works for Ensemble Sospeso (NYC) and an oratorio based on a Cree myth with librettist Tomson Highway for Soundstreams Canada.
Now living in Montreal, she was a member of the composition faculty at Stanford University from 1994-2004.
[430 words]
Melissa Hui (b. 1966) was born in Hong Kong and raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. She received degrees from Yale University (D.M.A., M.M.A.), the California Institute of the Arts (M.F.A.), and the University of British Columbia (B. Mus.). Her mentors include Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Mel Powell, Morton Subotnick, and Earl Kim.
Her commissioned works include Aljira for the Oregon Symphony, Inner Voices for the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Saskatoon Symphony, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Come as you are for the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec (Montréal), Still for flutist Robert Cram, sky so empty for the Kronos Quartet, Solace for the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Eternal Sun for Ensemble Antipodes of Switzerland, Night on Earth for English hornist Lawrence Cherney and chorus, Due East for Citywinds and Melody of China of San Francisco, The Cellar Door, a chamber opera for Tapestry New Opera Works, As I Lie Still for the Hammerhead Consort (Edmonton), From Dusk to Dawn for New Music Concerts (Toronto), Woman: Songs on poems by Sandra Cisneros for NUMUS (Kitchener, Ontario), Lacrymosa for Jeunesses Musicales du Canada (Ottawa), Rush for the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, Common Ground for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, And blue sparks burn for Friends of Today's Music, Bop! for the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Changes for the Vancouver New Music Society, Speaking in Tongues for the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Montréal), Roar for the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Always for the Peninsula Symphony with Stanford Taiko and Symphonic Chorus, Between you for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, In the Breath of the Night for the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Dog Days for the Dogs of Desire amplified ensemble (Albany), Foreign Affairs for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and soundtracks for National Film Board of Canada documentaries -- The Fifth Province and Sunrise over Tiananmen Square -- the latter having received an Oscar nomination for best short subject.
Her works have been performed and broadcast throughout North America, Europe and Australasia, including performances by American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, California EAR Unit, Halcyon Ensemble (Australia), Esprit Orchestra in Toronto, and at International Gaudeamus Music Week and Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), ISCM festivals in Switzerland and Croatia, Théatre de la Ville (Paris) and Festival Sons d'Hiver (Choisy-le-Roi) in France, Merkin Hall, Focus Festival, and Music at the Anthology in New York City, Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Spoleto Festival, and Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella and Piano Spheres series, among others. She has served as composer-in-residence at the Marlboro Festival, the Saskatoon Symphony and the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival. In 1992, she represented Canada at the International Rostrum of Composers.
As a member of the Common Sense Composers Collective, she has composed works for Dogs of Desire of the Albany Symphony, American Baroque (S.F.), Meridian Arts Ensemble (NYC), Essential Music (NYC), and New Millennium Ensemble (NYC), in annual collaborative ventures.
She has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1997 and a Fromm Music Foundation commission in 2000, as well as grants from the Canada Council, Meet the Composer, Aaron Copland Fund, Opera.ca, and The ASCAP Foundation. She won the grand prize at the 1996 CBC Young Composers Competition; first prizes from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Canadian Composers Competition and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne International Forum 93; first and second prizes from SOCAN, CAPAC, and PROCAN competitions; and was a finalist at International Gaudeamus Music Week in 1996.
Centredisc released And blue sparks burn, a solo CD of her solo and chamber works, in 2006. Her works, San Rocco and Speaking in Tongues, have been released on Centredisc and UMMUS, respectively. As a member of the Common Sense Composers Collective, her chamber work, Solstice, was released on CRI's Emergency Series in 1997. Common Sense's second CD, The Shock of the Old: New Music for Old Instruments, in collaboration with American Baroque, was released on the Santa Fe New Music label in the summer of 2002. Two movements from Speaking in Tongues, arranged for the invented instruments of TUYO, have been released on Nisapa. Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square and The Fifth Province are available on video from the National Film Board of Canada.
Current projects include commissioned works for Ensemble Sospeso (NYC) and an oratorio based on a Cree myth with librettist Tomson Highway for Soundstreams Canada.
Now living in Montreal, she was a member of the composition faculty at Stanford University from 1994-2004.
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