Reviews

• "Ssu-Yu Huang advances her music idea through colors generated by instrumentation, creating a dramatic feeling of presence in the actual scenes… Ssu-Yu Huang’s composition has a coherent, succinct, and efficient style… The most exciting is the effective use of percussions. No matter they are drums, cymbals, or wood blocks, the insertions are always surprising but just right; they are not for pleasing the audience, created not just for the sake of creation; their appearance fits tightly with what the music demands.” from the critics on "Red Cliffs" by Yun-Lin Chen, writer and radio hostess, Taiwan, 2007.
• "Her works rotating conversion into the smart timbre go hand-in-hand with the performers’ harsh demand. The Pentatonic scales musical elements carry the lament-like melancholy… " Nagaki Seiji, Music Critic of Japanese newspaper Asahi, 2000 .
• " …  a young composer to be so talented and popular. Her intelligent and talented works have come out one after another. Like many other great composers, she always completes every music work at astonishing promptness … " Kazuhito Yamashita, Japanese classical guitarist, 1999.
• "I have been astonish by her dynamic guitar solo works and diverse thoughts and sentiments, especially her trio works for guitar, violin and double-bass featured promptness and vitality … " Keiko Fujiie, Japanese composer, 1999.

Biographical Sketch

Ssu-Yu Huang, a native of Taiwan, enjoys an active career in contemporary music. Her works, covering a wide range of music with bold and delicate genre, are popular among professional musicians and orchestras in Taiwan as well as other parts of the world. German conductor maestro Günther Herbig praised her orchestral work of a modern and complex style, presenting her own characters and creativity. In recent years Ssu-Yu's works have proliferated and been performed in Europe, Asia and America. Her prominent work such as "Red Moon" for symphony won the first "Call For Score" of the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan in 2010, and was selected as part of the required repertoire of the Günther Herbig's International Conducting Workshop at the Taipei National Concert Hall in 2010. "Wind City Symphony Poem" and "Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto," for wind orchestra were invited to perform in the International Band Festivals, with the latter performed in the 2011 World Band Festival, recorded and distributed by Mark Custom Recording. "A Dream of Red Mansions" for trio and "A Stroke" for quintet were selected by the Asian Composers' League and performed in Yokohama, Japan and Manila, the Philippines, receiving high acclaim. "Meditation" for guitar solo was selected by Spanish guitarist Marcelo de la Puebla for a Puentes album with music published by Marc Reift Edition.

Ssu-Yu was born in 1970, studied piano at the age of six. She began her study of composition in 1987, while she attended the Tainan Woman’s College of Arts and Technology majoring in electronic organ and piano. In 1996 she graduated from the Chinese Culture University in Taipei with a Bachelor of Music degree in composition. She studied composition and piano at the University of Melbourne, Australia in 1997. In 2007, she studied with Dr. Geoffrey Gibbs while working towards her Master of Composition degree at University of Rhode Island. Since 1993 she has composed over 60 original pieces and arranged over 100 pieces. The majority of her works were commissioned by music groups and musicians including Taiwan Navy Band, Taiwan Wind Ensemble, Hsinchu Wind Orchestra, Japanese guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita, Japanese flute ensemble Marronier, Japanese 22nd Century Club, German Aranjuez Guitar Duo, Swedish Guitarist Rickard Svensson, folk singer Cheng Yang Yin, flutist Sophia Lin, Tone-Melody Flute Ensemble, and so on. Ssu-Yu’s works have been performed by internationally renounced musicians and orchestras in Argentina, China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United States, and Venezuela. 

Chronology