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Angel Lam is a young composer who expresses detailed and refined emotions and attention to the
beauty of soundscape and instrumentation in her music. Through musical poetry she conveys the memories and imageries that
inspired her works. Her music is praised as "beautiful, even ravishing at moments", as well as "[a] kaleidoscopic outpouring".
She blends the subtle and evocative expressiveness of an ancient form of East Asian aesthetic, to the power and perpetual
energy coming from her western musical training. Her music ranges from the delicate depiction of a drop of water for an
unconventional instrumentation--guitar, harp, vibraphone, crotales and double bass, to the telling of a forgotten hero
from ancient China written for large orchestra and narration. She writes her own stories and proses that are an important
part of her music. In her works, she continually seeks to retell the beauty she finds in everyday life.
Miss Lam grew up in Hong Kong/Los Angeles and is an active participant of music festivals worldwide since her days as an undergraduate. Her compositions have been performed throughout the United States and in many major cities around the world. Most recently, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble toured with her composition Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain in the United States, Switzerland's Lucerne Festival, China and Japan. The work is released by Sony/BMG as a featured bonus CD in Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble's latest release "New Impossibilities"*. She is also a two-time winner of the Carnegie Hall emerging composer commission, where she worked with Grammy Awards winning composer Osvaldo Golijov and eminent vocalist Dawn Upshaw in 2006-07, and with Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Project in 2005-06. Through professional training workshops in collaboration with Young Concert Artists of the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, they culminated to two Carnegie Hall premiere of her new works in September 2006 and April 2007.
Her recent and upcoming collaborations include commissions from Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Australia's Grainger Quartet, Greenwich Village Orchestra in New York, Houston Chamber Choir in the American Masterworks Festival 2008, Orange County Women's Chorus in Los Angeles, Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest in Chicago, Peabody Dance in a new theater composition created under the guidance of renowned theater artist Martha Clarke, and a new composition written for Mr. Yo-Yo Ma and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to premiere in Atlanta and Carnegie Hall in 2009.
She is currently a Doctoral candidate at the prestigious Peabody Conservatory and an artist diploma candidate at Yale University under the Henry and Lucy Moses Full Scholarship. Her composition teachers are Aaron Jay Kernis, Ezra Laderman and Christopher Theofanidis.
She received two Master degrees, in composition and music theory at the Peabody Conservatory, where she taught music theory to the Peabody undergraduates and designed three courses: "Classical Music Today: An analysis and Appreciation of Contemporary Classical Music", "The Romantic Composer" and "World Music, World Culture" for the Johns Hopkins University undergraduates during the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Intersession terms.
Miss Lam began studying composition in high school at the Hong
Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, and later entered the Academy to begin her undergraduate studies in
composition studying with Law Wing Fai, Clarence Mak (electronic music) and Lo Hau-Man. At the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts,
she researched in ancient Chinese aesthetics and Asian aesthetics in contemporary Western music.
She received numerous awards and scholarships during her undergraduate studies to attend music festivals internationally,
and a scholarship from the Liberal Arts Department lead by Prof. Betty Wei where she toured Europe studying the fine arts
and architectures of European cities. To pursue her graduate studies, she received the honored
Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship,
Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Composition Scholarship for
Overseas Studies, and Peabody Conservatory's Graduate Assistantship Full Tuition Award.
*exclusively sold at Barnes and Nobles
Honors and Awards: (show)
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- Commission from Carnegie Hall in a professional workshop with Osvaldo Golijov and Dawn Upshaw, culminating to a Carnegie Hall premiere in April 2007
- Commission from Carnegie Hall and Yo-Yo Ma Silk Road Project, culminating to a Carnegie Hall premiere at the "Tradition and Innovation: Silk Road Ensemble Young Artists Concerts" in September 2006
- First Prize Prix d' Ete, Peabody Conservatory of Music, March 2003
- First Prize Millennium Music Competition for Woodwind Quintet Composition, awarded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong
--The winning work performed at the 29th Annual International Double Reed Society Conference (Buenos Aires, Argentina), August 2000
- Two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award (2007 and 2008) and three consecutive year Morton Gould Young Composer Award Honorable Mention (2003, 2004 and 2005)
- Schumann Fellow, Aspen Music Festival Composition Masterclass studies with Christopher Rouse and Poul Ruders, 2003
- Scholarship Award, Aspen Music Festival Composition Individual studies with George Tsontakis, 2002
- Composition Fellow, Pacific Music Festival (Japan), private studies with Detlev Glanert, 2005
- Two time winner of NACUSA (National Association of Composers U.S.A.)Young Composer Competition Second Prize, 2004 and 2005
- Audience Prize for Best Composition, Seoul International Competition for Composers (Seoul, Korea) young composer category, March 2005
- Two time ASCAP/SCI Young Composer Commissioning Award regional winner and national finalist, 2004, 2005
- Southeastern Composer's League, Philip Slates Memorial Composition Contest Second Prize, March 2005
- Randolph S. Rothschild Composition Award at Peabody Conservatory, April 2003
Notable Performances: (show)
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- Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble tours with Empty Mountain, Spirit Rain in their 2007 U.S. Spring tour,
Switzerland, China and Japan (2007-2008)
- Theater composition Midnight Run mentored by renowned theater artist Martha Clarke, choreographed by Peabody Dance director Carol Bartlett, premieres at Peabody Conservatory, April 2007
- U. S. Premiere of Ambush from Ten Directions for orchestra with narration, Symphony
of Oak Park and River Forest, Chicago, conductor Kim Diehnelt, May 21, 2006
- Premiere of Ambush from Ten Directions for orchestra with narration, Hong Kong
Sinfonietta, conductor Yip Wing-Sie, March 18, 2005
Performance was broadcasted on major local television channel and on radio in Hong Kong (TVB Pearl and RTHK radio 4)
- Pacific Music Festival "Pacific Soundings Concert", premiere of Red Peony Sky in Mid June (complete version) at Kitara concert hall, Sapporo, Japan, July 2005
- Premiere of Therefore We do not Lose Heart for women's choir at the festival opening
concert of Songfest 2004, Pepperdine University, Malibu, USA, June 2004
- Ballet Premiere of Red Peony Sky in Mid-June, choreographed by
artistic director Carol A. Bartlett of Peabody Dance Preparatory School, at the Peabody Spring Dance Showcase 2004
- Aspen Music Festival, premiere of Red Peony Sky in Mid-June by Proteus Contemporary
Ensemble, June 2003
- Asian Music Festival, Tokyo, Japan. Japan premiere of chamber work Imagery of Water, September 2003
- Ballet premiere of Love Memo and Love in Cynical City for the multimedia dance production "Love in Cynical City". Program sponsored by HKLCD and CASH, November 1998
- Multimedia sound installation presentation at the Intermedia Festival of the Maryland Institute
College of Arts, May 2002
- My first orchestra composition, The Suite for Orchestra (1998), was selected and performed in the "Contemporary Music Workshop"
of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, conducted by Tsung Yeh, August 2000
- My compositions were performed and broadcasted on the "Hong Kong New Generation Young Composer's Concert" in 1998 and 2000, a program sponsored by Radio Television Hong Kong
Attended Masterclasses and Lesson with:
George Crumb, Poul Ruders, Christopher Rouse, George Tsontakis, Detlev Glanert, Ingram Marshall, James Primosch, Joel Hoffman, John Harbison, Brian Ferneyhough, Marc-Dalbavie
Scholarships and Grants: (show)
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- Yale University School of Music Full Scholarship (2007-2009)
- Peabody Institute Composition Graduate Assistantship Award (Full Tuition 2004-2006)
- Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Full scholarship, 2001-2003
- Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Composition Scholarship for Overseas Studies, 2003-2004
- Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Composition Scholarship Award, 2000
- Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, recipient of three grant awards in 2005
- Merle Montgomery Doctoral Grant
- Ellen Jane Lorenz Porter Grant for Graduate Work in Composition
- Lillian Harlan Ramage Grant for Graduate Study in Composition
- Peabody Merit Scholarship, 2001-2004
- Senatorial Scholarship from the State of Maryland, 4 years, 2004-2008
- American Music Center Grants, 2005-present
Higher resolution headshots:
Photo 1
Photo 2 (right click to download)
Contact the composer: compose (at) angellam.com