About Corey Chang
Composer/Pianist
“Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.”
-Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
Long Bio:
Corey Chang, described as “a major composer…of his generation” by The Millbrook Independent, is an American composer, pianist and educator currently based in Bloomington, Indiana. He is the recipient of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and a nominee for a 2023 Academy of the Arts and Letters music award, and his music has been workshopped and performed by the Euclid Quartet, The Da Capo Chamber Players, The National Sawdust Ensemble, Imani Winds, Ensemble intercontemporain, Arx duo, KOE, the Bard College-Conservatory Orchestra, the Indiana University MCCSC Band and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, as well as contemporary solo performers such as guitarist Jiji Kim, cellist Jay Campbell, pianist Blair McMillen, violist Yuchen Lu and percussionist Harrison Honor, among many others.
His music has received performances in highly acclaimed spaces such as Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, Sprague Hall, Vienna’s Ehrbar Hall, the Cité de la Musique, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Arts On Site, The Center at West Park, the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, and multiple other locations throughout NYC and Canada.
Recently, Chang has collaborated with various ensembles throughout the states. His works “Something to Say” and “Three Chinese Poems” are dedicated to and commissioned by flute and cello duo Eva Ding and Emma Kato (KOE) for their “For Mum and Dad” concert series, honoring Asian American musicians as well as Asian American immigrant parents. In addition, his Brass Quintet written for Ascension Brass, received its premiere in March, 2023 in Indiana University’s Merrill Hall, and his violin and guitar duo, “Luminous Chroma”, was commissioned by Arc and Talon, who have included it as part of their 2023 summer concert tour in Japan.
Corey Chang has a passion for music of all genres and is influenced by jazz, rock, pop, musical theatre and Chinese culture, among many other things. He believes in the transformative and unifying power in music; his current endeavor and project in-progress, East West Collaboration, seeks to break boundaries by producing works fusing together eastern traditional instruments and western instruments in a contemporary music setting. To accomplish these goals, he has teamed up with director of the IU Chinese Gateway Steven Yin, pipa virtuoso Wu Man, Zhejiang Conservatory’s director of international affairs Jimmy Wu, and faculty from Indiana University’s East Asian Languages and Cultures department and the Jacobs School of Music Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development to commission four composers to write for mixed Chinese-Western instrumental quartets to be performed in a concert in May, 2024.
As a pianist, Chang has collaborated and performed with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Greater New Haven Woodwind Ensemble, The Da Capo Chamber Players, the Bard College-Conservatory Orchestra, and students at the Brevard Music Festival and the Bowdoin Music Festival, as well as vocalists Dawn Upshaw, Rufus Muller, and Teresa Buchholz. He has given the premiere for many of his own solo piano works, including “Evening Light,” in Vienna’s Ehrbar Hall at The Prayner Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts as the first prizewinner of the Golden Key National Piano Composition Competition, “Three Piano Preludes,” at Juilliard’s Paul Hall, and “Field of Shards” as a joint commission by the Hudson Valley Music Circle and the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s American Music Festival in recognition of Joan Tower’s 80th birthday.
A passionate teacher as well as an active musician, Chang has taught multiple classes at Indiana University, including Notation and Calligraphy (MUS-K133), Free Counterpoint (MUS-K231 and MUS-K232) and Secondary Composition Seminar (MUS-K100), a composition class for instrumental majors. He also maintains a private composition studio, and his students have gone on to win awards and gain acceptance into various top-level undergraduate/graduate composition programs, including the Berklee College of Music, the University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, the Peabody Institute, the Royal Conservatory of Scotland, San Fransisco Conservatory and University of the Pacific.
His past teachers have included composers Amy Beth Kirsten, Augusta Read Thomas, Christopher Theofanidis, David Dzubay, Derek Bermel, George Tsontakis, Han Lash, Joan Tower and Robert Beaser, as well as pianists Benjamin Hochman, Frank Corliss, Jerome Lowenthal and Peter Serkin.
Chang holds dual degrees in Composition and Mathematics from Bard College and a Master’s Degree in Composition from The Juilliard School, where he was a Morse Teaching Fellow and was awarded the Joseph W. Polisi “Artist as Citizen” prize. Chang is currently a doctoral student and Associate Instructor of Composition at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and serves as the Assistant Director of the Jacobs Composition Academy (JCA), where he is also on the Composition faculty. This coming summer, he will lead the inaugural Jacobs Composition Academy Summer Intensive, a new 5-week program offered by JCA.
Taking a break from his musical activities, Chang enjoys exercising, kung fu, chess and partaking in thoughtful, introspective conversations with anyone he meets!
Medium Bio:
Corey Chang, described as “a major composer…of his generation” by The Millbrook Independent, is an American composer, pianist and educator currently based in Bloomington, Indiana. He is the recipient of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and a nominee for a 2023 Academy of the Arts and Letters music award, and his music has been workshopped and performed by the Euclid Quartet, The Da Capo Chamber Players, The National Sawdust Ensemble, Imani Winds, Ensemble intercontemporain, Arx duo, KOE, the Bard College-Conservatory Orchestra, the Indiana University MCCSC Band and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, as well as contemporary solo performers such as guitarist Jiji Kim, cellist Jay Campbell, pianist Blair McMillen, violist Yuchen Lu and percussionist Harrison Honor, among many others.
As a pianist, Chang has collaborated and performed with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Greater New Haven Woodwind Ensemble, The Da Capo Chamber Players, the Bard College-Conservatory Orchestra and students at the Brevard Music Festival and the Bowdoin Music Festival.
A passionate teacher as well as an active musician, Chang has taught multiple classes at Indiana University and maintains a private composition studio. His students have gone on to win awards and gain acceptance into various top-level university/conservatory composition programs, including the Berklee College of Music, Indiana University, the Peabody Institute and the Royal Conservatory of Scotland.
Chang holds dual degrees in Composition and Mathematics from Bard College and a Master’s Degree in Composition from The Juilliard School, where he was a Morse Teaching Fellow and was awarded the Joseph W. Polisi “Artist as Citizen” prize. Chang is currently a doctoral student and Associate Instructor of Composition at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and serves as the Assistant Director of the Jacobs Composition Academy (JCA), where he is also on the Composition faculty.
Short Bio:
Corey Chang, described as “a major composer…of his generation” by The Millbrook Independent, is an American composer, pianist and educator currently based in Bloomington, Indiana. As the recipient of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and a nominee for a 2023 Academy of the Arts and Letters music award, Chang has had his music workshopped and performed by many top musicians and ensembles, both nationally and internationally.
Chang holds dual degrees in Composition and Mathematics from Bard College and a Master’s Degree in Composition from The Juilliard School, where he was a Morse Teaching Fellow and was awarded the Joseph W. Polisi “Artist as Citizen” prize. Chang is currently a doctoral student and Associate Instructor of Composition at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and serves as the Assistant Director of the Jacobs Composition Academy (JCA), where he is also on the Composition faculty.
Very Short Bio:
Corey Chang (MM, The Juilliard School), described as “a major composer…of his generation” by The Millbrook Independent, is an American composer, pianist and educator currently based in Bloomington, Indiana. As the recipient of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and a nominee for a 2023 Academy of the Arts and Letters music award, Chang has had his music workshopped and performed by many top musicians and ensembles, both nationally and internationally.
