Dorothy Chang (composer)
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Vancouver B.C. 49° 15' 39.14" N, 123° 6' 50.23" W Arts Music Person
Described as "evocative and kaleidoscopic" (Seattle Times), the music of composer Dorothy Chang (b. 1970) is characterized by an emphasis on dramatic intensity and expressive lyricism, with a more recent interest in interdisciplinary works involving video, imagery and movement.
Dorothy's music has been performed by orchestras including the Albany (NY) Symphony, Aspen Concert Orchestra, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Queens Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Island and Vancouver Symphony, as well as by chamber ensembles including eighth blackbird, the Smith Quartet (UK), the Chicago Saxophone Quartet, Collage New Music (Boston), North/South Consonance (New York), Music from China, and Soundstreams (Toronto). Her music has been featured in concerts and festivals across North America and abroad, most recently at the PAN Music Festival (Seoul), Lontano Festival (UK), and World Music Days in Hong Kong.
Awards and honours that Dorothy has received include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the International Alliance for Women in Music, Mu Phi Epsilon, the National Society of Arts and Letters, Meet the Composer and the Jacob Druckman Orchestra Prize from the Aspen Music Festival She has received commissions from the Canada Council of the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Barlow Endowment, Chamber Music America, and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. For the 2003-04 and 2005-08 seasons, Dorothy held a Music Alive composer residency with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. In 2008 she was awarded the inaugural commission from the Women's Philharmonic Commissioning Project of Meet the Composer for a new orchestral work, Strange Air, which was premiered at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music by Marin Alsop and the festival orchestra.
Born in Winfield, Illinois, Dorothy began her music studies on piano at age six and began composing at the age of fourteen. She received degrees in composition from the University of Michigan (B.M., M.M.) and the Indiana University School of Music (D.M). She has served on the music faculty at Indiana State University and is presently Associate Professor of Music at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.