About

Described as "evocative and kaleidoscopic” and “beautiful and gripping”, the music of composer Dorothy Chang reflects an eclectic mix of musical influences ranging from popular and folk music to elements of traditional Chinese music.  The daughter of Chinese immigrants and raised in both the US and Taiwan, Chang has often explored in her music the curious phenomenon of being a ‘third culture kid’;  many of her works are inspired by place, time, memory, and the question of cultural identity.

Her music

Dorothy’s catalog includes over eighty works for solo, chamber and large ensembles as well as collaborations involving theatre, dance and video.  Her interest in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration has led to some of her favourite projects including: Shadow Catch, a chamber opera in collaboration with librettist Daphne Marlatt and composers Jennifer Butler, Benton Roark and Farshid Samandari, a radio play adaptation of Gertrude Stein’s White Wines for four vocalists and speaking percussionist, a double concerto Gateways for PEP (Piano and Erhu Project), a collaboration with choreographer Yukichi Hattori, composer and artistic director Vincent Ho and three other composers in the large-scale True North Symphonic Ballet premiered in 2017 by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, 飞 白 “Flying White” in collaboration with composer Owen Underhill, choreographer Wen Wei, the Turning Point Ensemble and the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, and Shelter, with harpist Janelle Nadeau and filmmaker Sean Shaul.

Performances and awards

 Her music has been featured in concerts and festivals across North America and abroad, with performances by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Queens Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, as well as by chamber ensembles including eighth blackbird, the Nu:BC Collective, the Smith Quartet, Soundstreams, Turning Point Ensemble, the Chicago Saxophone Quartet, Collage New Music and Music from China, among others. 

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. Her work Beyond Shadows was nominated as “Best Classical Composition” for the 2015 Western Canadian Music Awards. In 2022 she received a JUNO nomination for her work Flight: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra; in that same year she won the category of Classical Composer of the Year for the 2022 Western Canadian Music Awards.

Background

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 since 2003 has been a Professor of Music at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.