CHEN YI - CHINA
BORN 4 APRIL
As a Distinguished Professor at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, a prolific composer, and recipient of the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Dr. Chen Yi blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries. Her music has reached a wide range of audiences and inspired peoples of different cultural backgrounds throughout the world. She holds a BA and MA in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, and a DMA from Columbia University in New York City, studying composition with Wu Zuqiang, Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019.
Dr. Chen’s music has been performed and commissioned by the world’s leading musicians and ensembles, including Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Evelyn Glennie, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC, Seattle, Pacific, and Singapore Symphonies, the Brooklyn, NY, and LA Philharmonic, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Her music has also been recorded on many labels, including Bis, New Albion, CRI, Teldec, Telarc, Albany, New World, Naxos, Quartz, Delos, Angel, Bridge, Nimbus, KIC, and China Record Company.
Dr. Chen Yi is a cultural ambassador who has introduced hundreds of new music compositions and a large number of musicians from the East and the West to music and education exchange programs in the US, Germany, the UK, and Asian countries, particularly in recent years through programs of the Beijing Modern Music Festival, the Beijing International Composition Workshop (BICW), the Shanghai Spring Festival, the Tianjin May Festival, the China-ASEAN Music Week, the symphony orchestras throughout China and some other Asian countries, and the Thailand International Composition Festival, among many others. She believes that music is a universal language; improving understanding between peoples of different cultural backgrounds and helping to bring peace in the world.
.♫ LISTEN
MELANIE MITRANO - USA
BORN 4 APRIL
The inspired musical landscape of performer, educator and award-winning ASCAP composer Melanie Mitrano spans many genres, including classical, jazz, musical theatre, pop, Brazilian, and Portuguese Fado. Her eclecticism and versatility make her feel at home in almost any setting, be it a classroom, concert hall, theater, or jazz club.
Melanie is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and has the distinction of being the first woman to receive a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston. She has worked personally with composers such as György Ligeti, Luciano Berio, and John Harbison. She has traveled the world as a soloist, premiering dozens of new works in the USA, England, Italy, Japan, Taiwan and Brazil, where she currently serves as cofounder, resident composer and vocalist with InterXchange Ensemble, based in São Paulo.
To date, Melanie has released two critically-aclaimed discs. All Things Gold, the most recent, features only her own compositions: "straight-up acoustic vocal jazz in a champagne glass – swinging, clean, cool and refined." Six of the songs on that album have won compositional awards. Songs in Transit, released on Capstone Records in 2006, features repertoire which unites musical theater, blues, jazz, hip-hop and world music styles within a classical framework. Such notable American composers as Lee Hoiby, Tom Cipullo and Lori Laitman, as well as Pulitzer-Prize-winning composers David Del Tredici and Paul Moravec are heard accompanying the singer at the piano. Melanie's voice also appears in the film and on the EMI movie soundtrack of Perfume, winner of the 2007 German Film Award, directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Dustin Hoffmann and Alan Rickman.
Starting from a lineup of New York's best new music ensembles, Melanie’s compositions have been performed all across the USA coast to coast, and on four continents around the world. Her two worldwide podcasts for Classical Music Discoveries both placed in the top ten shows of all time with approximately 20 million listens. Her musical scores are published by Ivy Cottage Press (ASCAP).
To date, Melanie has released two critically-aclaimed discs. All Things Gold, the most recent, features only her own compositions: "straight-up acoustic vocal jazz in a champagne glass – swinging, clean, cool and refined." Six of the songs on that album have won compositional awards. Songs in Transit, released on Capstone Records in 2006, features repertoire which unites musical theater, blues, jazz, hip-hop and world music styles within a classical framework. Such notable American composers as Lee Hoiby, Tom Cipullo and Lori Laitman, as well as Pulitzer-Prize-winning composers David Del Tredici and Paul Moravec are heard accompanying the singer at the piano. Melanie's voice also appears in the film and on the EMI movie soundtrack of Perfume, winner of the 2007 German Film Award, directed by Tom Tykwer and starring Dustin Hoffmann and Alan Rickman.
Starting from a lineup of New York's best new music ensembles, Melanie’s compositions have been performed all across the USA coast to coast, and on four continents around the world. Her two worldwide podcasts for Classical Music Discoveries both placed in the top ten shows of all time with approximately 20 million listens. Her musical scores are published by Ivy Cottage Press (ASCAP).
♫ LISTEN
Two Phobias by Melanie Mitrano
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