composer | arranger | conductor
Recent news from my homeland was absolutely devastating and heartbreaking for me. Keep on singing this tune for a while, and decided to make an arrangement out of it to cope with my sadness.
Free to download and use, I don’t care about the copyright or whatsoever, just use it if you want.
Last year, I decided to join a choral composition competition in Taiwan called 音為愛 Sing for Love. It is a biennial competition that emphasizes the importance of choral music in Taiwan through new freshly written love-themed music, and for the first time since its first batch, is no longer exclusive for Taiwanese only. A huge challenge for me though, is one of the rules: it must be written in either Mandarin, Taiwanese Minnan, Hakka, or Taiwan Aboriginal language(s).
There were some categories, so I wrote two songs–one for mixed choir category and the other for children choir category–and to my surprise I was awarded with high distinction (特優) –in other words, the first place–for my work for children choir, 《又是美好的一天》 (Another Beautiful Day). That was my first attempt to write a Mandarin song, and with my limited skills in Mandarin and a help from a good friend of mine, Danivu, I was so excited to hear it being premiered!
On 15 March 2025, a concert for the winning works was held in Zhongshan Hall, Taipei. I took part as one of the singers in Taipei Chamber Singers. All I can say is I was so happy to hear my works wonderfully performed by Hua Hsin Children Chorus! A bonus, one of my arrangements was performed by 3521 Rotary Choir, and some friends told me how they enjoyed both songs. I’m grateful that I am so blessed!
Some articles about the event: Musico | ET Today | CNA
PS. I’ll update with the video once it is on air.
Most photos by Dada Image
Taipei Chamber Singers was invited to perform in the 18th Taiwan Outstanding Women in Science Awarding Ceremony 第18屆「台灣傑出女科學家獎」 and it was a wonderful experience to see the outstanding awardees and their wonderful projects. We did another one last year, performing a medley of Mo Li Hua and Diu Diu Dang A 茉莉花/丟丟銅仔, which I arranged for SSAATBarB specially for this event. Sadly, it was not recorded, so there has to be another next time to perform the piece.
This year, the organizer requested us to sing not in a mixed ensemble format but all female, and this year I was again privileged to perform and arrange another medley of Yue Qin and Mei Gui Mei Gui Wo Ai Ni 月琴/玫瑰玫瑰我愛你, and this time it was recorded! I do hope we will have another chance to perform this piece, it was so much fun!
Ever since I was still studying in NTNU, I always see Yun-Chen as a super smart and talented composer. Never thought that I would be honoured to be part of of her composition recital. Thank you for including me on your wonderful project, it was such a pleasure to conduct your ethereal works! Also thank you for all the singers who have worked hard to prepare the music despite all of limitations (especially time) we encountered. Thank you for giving your best efforts in our performance.
Congratulations on your successful concert, Yun-Chen Chang! It was one of the best graduation concerts I’ve ever had chance to experience!
Check out the videos below!
Photos and videos captured by Yu-Chung Chen
My first time conducting choir in a competition here in Taiwan!
Sometime around mid-end 2023, a friend of mine, Pallas, suddenly offered me to conduct their teacher’s choir for a competition, which I immediately agreed on despite of knowing nothing (not even the name of the choir!). I was then informed that the choir consists of music teachers around New Taipei City area, practicing in Houde Elementary School (厚德國小) every Wednesday afternoon to join the competition which I later found out is the National Competition of Folksong for Teachers and Students (全國師生鄉土歌謠比賽).
The choir’s full name is 新北市聲懷絕技教師專業學習社群, but they represents Houde Elementary School for the competition. We competed in two categories: Taiwanese music and Southeast Asian music, and by the time I was appointed, they have already agreed with the repertoires for both categories in which they chose to sing my arrangement of Sarinande and Sik Sik Sibatumanikam for the Southeast Asian music category.
We ended up awarded with High Distinction for both categories! Yeay! Kudos to all the teachers that practice so hard for this competition. They even managed to dance and sing Indonesian folksong very well, so touching!
Beside conducting the choir, I found many choirs chose Indonesian folksongs, some of them performed my choral arrangements; O Ina Ni Keke was performed beautifully by Jinhua Elementary School (台北市金華國小) and Miaoli Jianguo Elementary School (苗栗縣建國國小) sung two commissioned works of mine, Anging Mamiri and Ampar-Ampar Pisang, and some other schools too! So happy to hear these familiar songs performed in Taiwan.
It was a great experience for me. You can find an article about it here (it’s in Chinese).
A tune that brainwashed me since Sunday after rehearsal, thus I made this short arrangement. Applied some unconventional vocal lines I love since it is fun to get some spicy chords, isn’t it?
You are my sunshine,
my only sunshine
You make me happy
when skies are gray
You'll never know, dear,
how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away…
After quite some time, I finally have some time to update my blog.
Quite recently, I posted on my Instagram that I will giveaway some of my music for free. If you happened to replied to my posts, you will be able to download the files in the links from February 7-9, 2022.
Thank you for responding, and I hope you enjoy my music as much as I do!
PS. You can only download the file you have asked for.
I am now updating my website as the previous one was accidentally removed. Please be patient and wait for the full updates. Thank you!
