Angel Lam

Angel Lam is a GRAMMY-nominated composer who uses the beauty of sounds, songs, instrumentation, and written language to express detailed emotions and her passion for life. She tells intimate stories about life and death, growing up, inspirations and relationships. Her compositions are praised as “Timeless” (by Carnegie Hall), “Precious, soaring lyrical lines” (Metropolitan Opera, Opera News), and “both poignant and important.” (Yo-Yo Ma)

She has a background in both classical and folk music, learning zheng and qin (both ancient Chinese zithers) as a child. Her work combines evocative songs, deeply felt, hidden memories, an exploration of human experiences, and her immersed sensitivity to spirituality. She writes short stories for her compositions, which are an inseparable component of her creative process.

She was honored to receive three New York Carnegie Hall commissions before the age of 29, including a cello concerto dedicated to Yo-Yo Ma and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Spano. She also wrote a classical crossover piece for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. They toured the work for many years worldwide at numerous prestigious venues, including Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and the Royal Albert Hall in London. Recently she is a composer-in-residence at Yale University Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, where she is commissioned by the Musical Bridge Project to write a new work for superstar pipa virtuoso Wu Man and artistic director Melvin Chen for their festival opening concert. Most recently, she produced, curated and composed a concert program at Merkin Hall of Kaufman Music Center titled “Hong Kong Journeys”, co-presented by the 25th Anniversary of the city of Hong Kong SAR and HKETO in New York. Recent and upcoming, her music is released on Naxos Records, Albany Records and In a Circle Records, the performed by the first prize winner of the Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artists Competition and Grammy-nominated Hub New Music Ensemble.

She is one of America’s foremost female composers selected by the League of American Orchestras and Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, to write a new work to be performed by five professional American orchestras: Utah Symphony and Opera, Jacksonville Symphony, Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Lumos, and the premiere will be conducted by Michael Stern at the Kansas City Symphony. Most recently, she is the recipient of Opera America’s Discovery Grant Award to write and develop her new musical-opera in New York. This past year she was the composer-in-residence at the chamber music series at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Park Slope, NYC, and recently elected as a member of their board of trustees.

In recent years, her works have been performed and recorded in fifty different cities worldwide by multiple ensembles and touring groups, including Music at Copland House Ensemble (U.S. tour), Guitar Foundation of America (worldwide recordings and performances), Hub New Music Ensemble (U.S. tour and recording), Asia America New Music Institute (Japan tour), Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival at the Konzertsaal des Rathauses, Bavaria, Germany, New Music for Strings Iceland Festival, in Reykjavik, Iceland, Radio Television Hong Kong (film recording), Music at Mānoa at Mae Zenke Orvis Auditorium, Hawaii, Little Universe Theatre in Shandong, China, and Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District Mixtape Volume 2 album recording.

Lam received her doctorate from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, her Bachelor’s degree with honours from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and is the recipient of the Henry and Lucy Moses full scholarship Artist diploma from Yale University, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Overseas Full Scholarship.