A Hong Kong-based composer, Kai-Young Chan focuses on the integration of nuance, relevance, and resonance in music that converses with societies and cultures, and he is particularly drawn to the musicality of Chinese literature expressed through the tonal Cantonese language.
His music is performed internationally by such groups as Albany Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, PRISM Quartet, Daedalus Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Dolce Suono Ensemble, ensemble chromoson, International Ensemble Modern Academy, Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes, Candomino Choir, and Hong Kong New Ensemble. His selected works are released on Ablaze Records, PARMA Recordings, and Innova Recordings, with scores published by Editions Peters (London) and Central Conservatory of Music Press (Beijing).
Kai-Young is part of the first-ever artist delegation of the American Composers Forum to the Havana Festival for Contemporary Music in Cuba, a historic tour documented by the National Public Radio of United States. Other festivals and conferences featuring his music include two editions of ISCM World Music Days (2015 in Slovenia, 2012 in Belgium), International Rostrum of Composers, June in Buffalo, Chamber Music Northwest, Valencian International Performance Academy and Festival, soundscape Festival, VocalEspoo International Festival, New Music Gathering at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, International Forum of New Music Manuel Enriquez, Risuonanze Festival, Internationalen Ferienkurse Darmstadt, Chinese Composers' Festival, Hong Kong Contemporary Music Festival, and Musicarama. He is a recipient of the Keuris Prize, Hilda K. Nitzsche Music Prize, Helen L. Weiss Composition Prize, CASH Music Scholarship, among other accolades.
Kai-Young received his doctoral degree in music composition from the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught undergraduate courses in music theory, musicianship, piano, and erhu as a Benjamin Franklin Doctoral Fellow. He joined the faculty of The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 2016.
- MUSC1222 Fundamentals of Tonal Music II
- MUSC2252 Materials and Structures of Music
- MUSC2262 Advanced Harmonic Practice
- MUSC3343 Composition I
- MUSC3353 Composition II
- MUSC3393 Selected Studies: Creative Music Notation
- MUSC5201 Music Management and Promotion (MA)
- MUSC5212 Special Topic III in 'Music and Creativity’: Materials and Structures of Popular Music (MA)
- MUSC5212 Special Topic III in 'Music and Creativity’: Frontiers in Music Notation and Creativity (MA)
- MUSC5212 Special Topic III in 'Music and Creativity’: The Study of Orchestration (MA)
- UGED1084 Understanding Musicals: Broadway and Beyond