Jen Shyu (; born March 28, 1978) is an American experimental jazz vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer, and producer.

Early life and education

Shyu was born on March 28, 1978, in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

, the child of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese and

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

ese immigrants. She was classically trained in piano, violin, and ballet, and performed with the

Peoria Symphony Orchestra The Peoria Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Peoria, Illinois conducted by George Stelluto. Founded in 1897 as Bradley University's Bradley Symphony Orchestra (under conductor Harold Plowe), it is the fourteenth oldest orchestra ...

at the age of 13. Shyu studied theater and opera at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Musical career

Shyu's seven albums as leader or co-leader include 2011's ''Synastry'', the first woman-led record released by Pi Recordings, and ''Sounds and Cries of the World'' (Pi 2015), reviewed favorably by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' and included in annual best-of lists in both ''The New York Times'' and ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

''. The latter album featured Shyu's band Jade Tongue, comprising trumpeter

Ambrose Akinmusire Ambrose Akinmusire ( born May 1, 1982) is an American avant-garde jazz composer and trumpeter. Biography Born and raised in Oakland, California, Akinmusire was a member of the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble, where he caught the attention of ...

, violist

Mat Maneri Mat Maneri (born October 4, 1969) is an American composer, violin, and viola player. He is the son of the saxophonist Joe Maneri and Sonja Maneri. Career Maneri has recorded with Cecil Taylor, Guerino Mazzola, Matthew Shipp, Joe Morris, Ger ...

, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Dan Weiss. Shyu appears on several records released by saxophonist and MacArthur Genius Fellow

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing al ...

and Five Elements. Other collaborators include Anthony Braxton, Mark Dresser, Bobby Previte, Chris Potter, Michael Formanek, and

David Binney David Binney (born August 2, 1961) is an American alto saxophonist and composer. Early life Binney was born in Miami, Florida, and was raised in Carpinteria, California. From his parents, who loved music, he was exposed to albums by John C ...

. Shyu has performed at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, Rubin Museum of Art,

Ringling International Arts Festival The Ringling International Arts Festival is an annual festival at the Ringling Museum of Art. The first three years the festival was a collaboration with the Baryshnikov Arts Center, but currently is curated solely by the John and Mable Ringling ...

Asia Society The Asia Society is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and around the world (Hong Kong, Man ...

, Roulette,

Blue Note Jazz Club Blue Note Jazz Club is a jazz club and restaurant located at 131 West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on September 30, 1981, by owner and founder Danny Bensusan, with the Nat Adderley Quintet being the featured ...

Bimhuis The Bimhuis is a concert hall for jazz and improvised music in Amsterdam. With an average of 150 performances a year the Bimhuis is the main stage for these musical genres in the Netherlands. In 2017 it was also a host for the 17th edition of ...

, Salihara Theater, National Gugak Center, and the

National Theater of Korea The National Theater of Korea is a national theatre located in the neighborhood of Jangchung-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, Jung-gu, South Korea. It is the first nationally managed theater in Asia. Affiliation The National Theater of Korea was establi ...

. Shyu studied traditional music and dance in Cuba, Taiwan, Brazil, China, South Korea, and East Timor. In 2013, Shyu was awarded an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship to conduct music research in Indonesia; this work culminated in 2014's ''Solo Rites: Seven Breaths'', directed by Garin Nugroho. In March 2016, Shyu premiered the multilingual music drama ''Song of Silver Geese.'' A duo with MacArthur Genius Fellow Tyshawn Sorey was included in ''The New York Times'' as one of the "Best Live Jazz Performances of 2017".

Recognition

Shyu has been a recipient of multiple Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards and Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Awards. Commissions have come from the MAP Fund, Jerome Foundation,

Chamber Music America Chamber Music America (CMA) is an American non-profit organization that provides small ensemble professionals with access to a variety of professional development, networking, and funding resources. CMA's regular initiatives include grants, awards, ...

’s New Jazz Works, and

New Music USA New Music USA is a new music organization formed by the merging of the American Music Center with Meet The Composer on November 8, 2011. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as two media program ...

, and Shyu has received fellowships from the Asian Cultural Council, Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In 2019, she was awarded the

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

for Music Composition.

Discography

* ''For Now'' (2002) * ''Jade Tongue'' (2008) * ''Synastry'' (2011) with Mark Dresser * ''Sounds and Cries of the World'' (2015) with Jade Tongue (Ambrose Akinmusire, Mat Maneri, Thomas Morgan, Dan Weiss) * ''Song of Silver Geese'' (2017)

Appearances

* ''Soko Arts Festival 2001'' (2001) * Lewis Jordan Quartet – ''More Travels of a Zen Baptist'' (2002) * Doug Yokoyama Quartet – ''Thanks for Stopping By'' (2002) * Steve Coleman and Five Elements – ''Lucidarium'' (2005) * Steve Coleman and Five Elements – ''Weaving Symbolics'' (2006) * Miles Okazaki – ''Generations'' (2009) * Positive Catastrophe – ''Garabatos Volume One'' (2009) * Steve Coleman and Five Elements – ''Harvesting Semblances and Affinities'' (2010) * Steve Coleman and Five Elements - ''The Mancy of Sound'' (2011) * Aya Nishina – ''Flora'' (2013) * Dan Weiss – ''Sixteen: Drummers Suite'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shyu, Jen 1978 births Living people American keyboardists American jazz singers American musicians of Taiwanese descent American people of East Timorese descent Musicians from Peoria, Illinois Pi Recordings artists Stanford University alumni Jazz musicians from Illinois 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women guitarists