Shen Yiwen, Composer and Pianist

Welcome to the site of Composer & Pianist Shen Yiwen!

Recent News:

Yiwen's First Orchestral Essay (2010), for full orchestra, was chosen from a pool of 153 candidates as one of six winning compositions, by the Minnesota Orchestra for its annual Composer Institute. The piece will receive its world premiere by the orchestra under Maestro Osmo Vänskä on January 6, 2012. For more information, please visit http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/about/news_story.cfm?id_news=31152116

Yiwen was selected as one of four composers to participate in Carnegie Hall's Professional Training Workshop, directed by soprano Dawn Upshaw and composer Donnacha Dennehy. His commissioned piece Taking Leave of a Friend (2011) was premiered at Carnegie's Zankel Hall at 7:30pm on April 17th. According to The New York Times, "Mr. Shen set six poems by Li Po with a lucid, economical lyricism handed down by Barber and Rorem." For more information, please visit http://www.carnegiehall.org/Event.aspx?id=2400 and http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/arts/music/dawn-upshaw-and-students-at-zankel-hall-review.html?_r=1&ref=arts

Yiwen's First Orchestral Essay (2010), for full orchestra, was selected as one of three winning compositions by the Albany Symphony Orchestra for its Second Annual Young Composer Competition. The piece will be read in May by Maestro David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony Orchestra as part of the orchestral's annual American Music Festival.

Yiwen was commissioned by the Beijing Modern Music Festival and Beijing Symphony Orchestra for a clarinet concerto. The piece will receive its world premiere on May 25th in Beijing Concert Hall, China.

Yiwen’s Three Songs of Emily Dickinson (2011), co-commissioned by Dawn Upshaw and Vocal Arts Program of Bard College Conservatory of Music, was performed on March 17th at Morgan Library, New York. The piece was reviewed by The New York Times as "a vibrant setting of three poems." For more information, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/arts/music/bard-college-graduate-students-at-morgan-library-museum.html?ref=music

Yiwen's composition Quintet (2008) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, was performed by Da Capo Chamber Players on January 24th and was reviewed by The New York Times as "a jaunty, vibrantly scored canvas." For more information, please visithttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/arts/music/26capo.html?_r=2&ref=music

Excerpt from Clarinet Concerto (2011)

Clarinetist Wang Tao, Maestro Lin Daye, Beijing Symphony Orchestra