Singaporean composer Yuting Tan writes music which explores the interaction of different sounds to form unique colours and textures. Her music has been recognized with awards including first prize in the Macht Competition for Orchestral Composition (2018), first prize in the Virginia Carty deLillo Composition Competition (2018), and third prize in the Prix d’Été Competition (2017) at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and has been performed in Singapore, USA, UK, New Zealand, and Italy. Past collaborations include performances by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Empyrean Ensemble, ~Nois, Alarm Will Sound, Now Hear This, Unassisted Fold, and Ensemble Soundinitiative. Yuting also enjoys working with artists from other fields and creating music in collaboration with other art forms. In 2019, she performed her original live score for the USA premiere screening of Chinese film pioneer Shouju Zhu’s 1925 film Stormy Night (Fengyu zhi ye).
Yuting is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Composition at the University of Chicago on a full fellowship from the Division of the Humanities. She also holds Master of Music degrees in Music Composition and Music Theory Pedagogy from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and a Joint Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Composition with Honours (Highest Distinction), awarded jointly by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (National University of Singapore) and the Peabody Institute.
Yuting Tan's piece Amnesia premiered with the Grossman Ensemble on March 3, 2023.
Program notes:
spiralling graphite
a demented waltz
to the side and around and around
until cut blooms
syncopate my heart waves
and around and around my head
stiff petals and prickly yarn
chained to the side
twisted, crushed
a cloud of glass shards
gurgling over and around and around
until fresh ashes
precipitate, penetrate and
crack to the side
an enamelled skull