“The composer Yuheng Chen is highly cultivated in terms of compositional skill, impressing me with both the structure development and the refined aspects.”

__AKIRA NISHIMURA, “Gendai no Ongaku” in NHK Radio

“Yuheng has been studying composition in my composition class for several years. Yuheng is a diligent, attentive, and dedicated student, and also a cosmopolitan, well-informed, yet also amiable and completely trustworthy young composer.”

__MICHAEL JARRELL,  Recomm

“He approaches his work with a profound understanding of the intricacies of sound, crafting pieces that are not only technically sophisticated but also intellectually stimulating.”

__CLARA IANNOTTA,  Recomm

“Chen had a very strong desire to create his own sound and we could feel his strong intention.  he is really eager to make a good sound in his music. That made me feel I would love to hear his music.”

__JO KONDO, Takemitsu Award, Jury Comments.

Yuheng Chen – Composer, Pianist, and Contemporary Arts Event Organizer. Born in 1998 in Jinan, China,

Chen’s work draws on memory—awakening and transforming personal traumas—through dense, grainy textures and weighted pulses whose resonances give space for reflection.

Chen studied composition under Michael Jarrell and Clara Iannotta, as well as electroacoustic composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) with Karlheinz Essl. Starting in 2024, Chen will begin working with the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) based in Frankfurt.

In 2022, Chen was a finalist in the Ö1 Talentebörse competition in Austria. In 2023, Chen was a laureate of the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award and received first prizes at the Concorso Internazionale di Composizione, the Frank Robert Abell Young Composers Competition in the USA, and the Irino Composition Prize in Japan. Chen is active in numerous music festivals, including Witten Tage für neue Kammermusik, Tokyo Operacity Composium 2023, Impuls Festival Graz, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, Klangspuren Schwaz, Festival Mixtur Barcelona, and Wien Modern. Chen’s works have been performed by various orchestras and ensembles such as the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Names, Ensemble Phace, Ensemble Platypus, Ensemble Modern, and many others.

Chen also attended private classes with Ying Wang, and masterclasses with Olga Neuwirth, Chaya Czernowin, Francesco Filidei, and Franck Bedrossian, among others.