Works performed by Earplay:

Along the River During the Qingming Festival
The Legend of Chang-e

Joan Huang grew up and received her early music education with her parents in Shanghai, China. During her teenage years under the political pressure of the Cultural Revolution, she was sent to a farm to accept 're-education,' which meant doing heavy manual labor for three years. During her time on the farm, she had the opportunity to learn authentic Chinese traditional music from local farmers. In 1986 she came to the United States to continue her education at the University of California at Los Angeles and studied with Elaine Barkin, William Kraft and Roger Bourland. She became very interested in creating a style of fusion of Chinese traditional musical language with Western contemporary compositional techniques. She has received several awards, including two from Phi Beta Kappa for international students, one Tanglewood Music Festival fellowship, and two Aspen Music Festival Scholarships. In 1991, she received her Ph.D. from UCLA.

As a composer, Ms. Huang has had commissions and performances from outstanding organizations and performers, such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Boston Music Viva, Boston Artists Ensemble, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Southwest Chamber Music Society, Marimolin, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Ying Quartet, and Piano Spheres etc. Her The Legend of Chang-e won the first prize of the 1994 Marimolin's International Composition Contest. Besides performances in the United States, her music has been performed in Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Joan Huang has taught at University of California, Irvine, and has given lectures at University of Southern California, University of California, Santa Barbara, California State University at Fullerton and Shanghai Conservatory of Music, China. Since March 1997, she has been a regular columnist with the bi-monthly Chinese professional magazine The Music Lovers. For more inform information, visit her website.