New Music Unlisted - 7 (Kitaptan Sonra)

武満徹作曲賞/Toru Takemitsu Composition Award

Phenomenon for Orchestra

The piece was commissioned by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund. Composed in 2022. Conductor - Yishai Steckler, Sopran - Tali Ketzef. Premired at the Henry Crown Symphony Hall, Jerusalem Theater, December 5, 2022. Recorded by Avi Elbaz
Dedicated to Peter Pohly

Riddle for the Symphony Orchestra, big choir and sopran

The new piece was written for two incredible musicians - Yael Barolsky and Oded Gezhals,recording - Ronald Boersen.
The premiere was on 1.05.14 

Repercussion for violin and percussion by Hana Ajiashvili

tracé /trait (2021/22)für Orchester

Premiere: 
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall
Conductor: Tsunoda Kosuke
28.05.2023

tracé /trait (2021/22)für Orchester

The piece was commissioned by the Meitar Ensemble and with the support the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. The premiere was at the CEME festival on December 23. 2023.
 Conductor - Yuval Zorn, Meitar Ensemble, Studio Anette, Tel Aviv, 2023

Impossible sketches for ensemble and electronics

Awakenings

Tslalei Or was written especially for two great musicians Yoni Gotlibovich and Yuval Zorn, the Premiere was on June 20, 2016 at Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts

Tslalei Or (2016)

Arlene Sierra: Aquilo for Orchestra (2001)
performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jac Van Steen, conductor
www.arlenesierra.com
www.bridgerecords.com

SIERRA: Aquilo (Bridge CD clip)

The piece was written especially for trio Catch - clarinet, cello, piano, for the festival Tslil Meudcan - Tel Aviv, 2018

Blue by self titled painting by Kandinsky

Pagan II (1996)  	 	

12 mins. for orchestra (3 picc.3.3.3 - 4.3.3.1 - piano, percussion (5) - 16.14.12.10.8)  
First performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Naohiro Totsuka, Tokyo City Opera Concert Hall Tokyo, November 1997. 

A BBC Radio 3 broadcast with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies followed in February 2000 (this recording).     

For me, Pagan II is undoubtedly the most frightening, austere work I have ever composed. It is a personal glimpse into the abyss. The music has a ritualistic feel to it, as if some huge arcane and barbaric ceremony was being witnessed, and the participants of the ceremony were being, in turn, entranced through hypnotic 'dance', and brutalised through music which is violent, both rhythmically and harmonically. Pagan II is not intended to be a desolate pronouncement on our future, rather a glimpse of the unthinkable. Both Pagan I and II can be performed as a complete work. 

PAGAN II (for orchestra (1996)

Fantasia on a Theme of Vaughan Williams – orchestral piece. Awarded 2004 Toru Takemitsu Prize

Fantasia on a Theme of VW

Homepage: YuhengChen.com

Yuheng Chen was born in 1998 in Jinan, China, and is currently based in Vienna. After completing composition studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) with Karlheinz Essl, Michael Jarrell and Clara Iannotta, Chen began working with the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) in 2024.

Chen’s work focuses on the boundaries of instrumental sound and the fragile balance between noise and effect, transforming the fragmented and volatile emotional fabric of contemporary life into vivid sonic structures. As a composer and performer, Chen explores sound modulation as a medium for poetic transformation.

Chen has been awarded multiple prizes, including the 1st Prize at the 46th Irino Prize (Japan), 3rd Prize at the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award 2023, and the 1st Prize at both the Appassionato Ensemble International Composition Competition and the Frank Robert Abell Young Composers Competition (USA). In 2022, Chen was a finalist for the Ö1 Talentebörse-Kompositionspreis.

Chen’s music has been performed at festivals such as Witten Tage für neue Kammermusik, Gaudeamus festival, Impuls Festival Graz, Klangspuren Schwaz, Tokyo OperaCity Composium, Mixtur Festival Barcelona, Wien Modern, and Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik. Performers include the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Talea, Ensemble Phace, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Platypus, and others.

Chen has received commissions from institutions and ensembles including Ensemble Recherche (2024/25), Ensemble Phace (2026), Ensemble Modern akademie, Ensemble Platypus, Alte Schmiede Wien, Argo Kollektiv and others.

Parallel to composition, Yuheng Chen is active as an improviser and organizer of contemporary music events, collaborating in Vienna with groups such as the Argo Kollektiv and the Interharmonics Elektroakustichemusik Lab.

Contact :yuhengchencomposer@gmail.com

tracé /trait (2021/22)für Orchester

Yuheng CHEN