Dai Wei
Composer
DAI WEI is originally from China. Her musical journey navigates in the spaces between east and west, classical and pop, electronic and acoustic, innovation and tradition. She often draws from eastern philosophy and aesthetics to create works with contemporary resonance and reflects an introspection on how these multidimensional conflicts and tension can create and inhabit worlds of their own. Her artistry is nourished by the Asian and Chinese Ethnic cultures in many different ways. Being an experimental vocalist, she performs herself as a Khoomei throat singer in her recent compositions, through which are filtered by different experiences and backgrounds as a calling that transcends genres, races, and labels.
She was awarded CANOA Commission (Composing a New Orchestra Audience) from the American Composer Orchestra Underwood New Music Reading and her newly composed chamber orchestra Invisible Portals which is conducted by Marin Alsop is premiered at Carnegie Hall in March 2022. Her orchestral work, Samsaric Dance will be featured at New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s Edward Cone Composition Institute in July 2022. Recently, Wei was featured in The Washington Post’s “22 for 22’: Composers and Performers to Watch this year.”
During a centralized quarantine, she wrote a piece for solo violin and electronics called Song for Shades of Crimson which was dedicated to people who have died from coronavirus. It is premiered by violinist Todd Reynolds at Bang on a Can 2020 Marathon. She served as Young Artist Composer-in-Residence at Music from Angel Fire and Composer Fellow at Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong. Other Projects include commissions and collaborations from orchestras and ensembles such as the Utah Symphony Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, San Diego Youth Symphony, Aizuri String Quartet, the Rock School of Ballet in Philadelphia. Her compositions were broadcast by WRTI, Performance Today, WHYY, Shanghai Dragon Television, Radio Television Hong Kong, and Qinghai Television.
Wei collaborated with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia under the direction of Dirk Brossé for two consecutive years, where she performed herself as the vocalist and premiered at Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. She has also performed her own compositions in various venues, such as Bang on a Can Summer Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, International Computer Music Conference, World Saxophone Congress, and North American Saxophone Alliance.
Wei is currently pursuing her doctorate in Music Composition at Princeton University as a Naumburg Fellow. She holds Artist Diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music. After she finished her B.A. in Music Composition at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in China, she came to the United States and earned an M.M. in Music Composition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.