About Jenny
Jenny Yao (b. 2000) is a composer from Charleston, SC currently based in Cambridge, MA. Her music seeks to explore the inner machinations of the mind and the natural world by conveying warped perceptions of mood and temporality. Her works have garnered national acclaim, including honors from the ASCAP and BMI Foundations, Tribeca New Music, the Music Teachers National Association, Luna Composition Lab, Webster University, and the YoungArts Foundation. Recent awards include the Francis Boott and Hugh F. MacColl Prizes. In addition, her compositions have been performed by collaborators such as the United Nations Chamber Music Society, Parker String Quartet, Lorelei Ensemble, New Fromm Players, and Harvard Choruses. An accomplished pianist as well, her achievements include first prize at the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition and the Vernell Gregg Young Artists Competition as well as prizes at the American Fine Arts Festival International Concerto and Romantic Music Competitions. In 2016, she made her orchestral debut with the Kostroma Symphony Orchestra in Russia under the baton of Pavel Gershtein. Jenny graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in Chemistry and Physics with a secondary in Music, where she studied composition with Chaya Czernowin, Hans Tutschku, Yvette Janine Jackson, and Robert Kyr. While an undergraduate at Harvard, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a member of Harvard’s Junior 24 and awarded the Wendell Prize for broad-ranging scholarship. She served as Co-President of the Harvard Composers Association and sang in the Radcliffe Choral Society. Passionate about arts outreach, she served as a Co-Director of MIHNUET, a service organization devoted to bringing music to hospitals and nursing homes, and a collegiate ambassador with the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Education and Community Engagement Programs. Her academic research has spanned disciplines from tissue engineering to chemical biology and bioinformatics and been published in several peer-reviewed articles. Currently, she is an MD-PhD student in the Harvard/MIT program. |