Shih-Hui Chen (born 1962)
Shih-Hui Chen was born in Taipei but has lived in the United States since 1982. She earned a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University and a doctoral degree in music composition from Boston University. She later returned to Taiwan for two years to study indigenous music and the style of Chinese classical music known as Nanguan.
Shih-Hui Chen is currently a Professor of Music at Rice University. In 2015 she founded the performing arts festival in Houston, Texas called Common Practice 21C: Classical, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Music to explore the fusion of traditional Asian and western musical cultures.
Shih-Hui Chen has composed music for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, and soloists. Her website states:
In her works, she seeks to cross boundaries between music and society, between the music of distinct cultures, and between music and other art forms.
This is her three-movement string quartet composed from 2007 to 2009 entitled Fantasia on the Theme of Plum Blossoms, using as musical material a popular Nankuan melody: