about me, ted

New generation composer, Tai-Kuang Chao, sees himself as a musical storyteller and sonic painter. His muses and inspirations can be traced habitually to a diverse scope, includes aboriginal / folk tunes from native Taiwanese, literature, paintings, and installations. Chao endeavors to pictorialize the abstract spheres via personal music language to demonstrate his illusionistic emotions and stylistically diversities. He attempts to employ notes fused with acoustic timbres to blend his musical pigments onto the palette, which becomes the paintbrush that leads the audience’s imagination to create an image within the realm of their fantasies.

With infatuation of working interdisciplinarily, Chao’s music collaborates recurrently with the other areas of the fine arts, including choreography, improvisation, theatrical performance, lighting and costume design, which creates a visually stunning performance, thus commanding attention and musical involvement the audience.

Chao’s music has garnered acclaim through working with performing groups, East Coast Composer Ensemble (ECCE), S.E.M. Ensemble, Ensemble Mise-En, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Modern Ensemble and Roosevelt University (CCPA) Orchestra and musicians, Timothy Munro, Carlos Cordeiro, Cliff Colnot, Fusao Kajima and Petr Kotik.

Chao completed his doctoral studies in composition-theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). His principal teachers include Erin Gee, Reynold Tharp, Erik Lund, Kyong Mee Choi, Stacy Garrop, Ching-Wen Chao, Christopher Graham Roberts and Wan-Chen Huang. Chao also participated in master classes with other notable composers, including John Aylward, Eric Chasalow, Cindy Cox, Vinko Globokar, John Harbison, Toshio Hosokawa, Lee Hyla, James Primosch, Laura Elise Schwendinger, Augusta Read Thomas and Yehudi Wyner.

*curriculum vitae available upon request.