21 Facts About Tyzen Hsiao

Tyzen Hsiao was a Taiwanese composer of the neo-Romantic school.

Tyzen Hsiao's compositions stand as a musical manifestation of the Taiwanese literature movement that revitalized the island's literary and performing arts in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tyzen Hsiao's compositions include works for solo instruments and chamber ensembles, many works for solo voice, and large-scale pieces for orchestras and choirs with soloists.

Tyzen Hsiao credited Rachmaninov, Bartok and Frederic Chopin as important influences on his style, along with Presbyterian hymnody and, above all, Taiwanese folk music.

Enthusiasm for his music runs particularly strong at institutions where Tyzen Hsiao has served in the past as a teacher, such as the National Taiwan Normal University, the Tainan University of Technology and the National Kaohsiung Normal University.

Tyzen Hsiao's compositions have been the subject of graduate research at the National Sun Yat-sen University in his hometown of Kaohsiung, the Florida State University in Tallahassee, and other institutions.

Tyzen Hsiao was born in Hozan Town in Taiwan's southern port city of Takao on 1 January 1938.

From 1959 to 1963 Tyzen Hsiao majored in music at the National Taiwan Normal University, taking a leave of absence midway through his studies to serve as music instructor and administrator for Pai-Sha Junior High School in Penghu.

Tyzen Hsiao's teachers included two pianists, Kao Tsu-Mei and Li Fu-Mei, and Paris-trained composer Hsu Tsang-houei.

Tyzen Hsiao married Gao Jen-ci upon his return to Taiwan in 1967.

Tyzen Hsiao was appointed professor at the National Taiwan Normal University in 1973.

The first "Hsiao Tyzen Night" featuring performances of his music took place in 1975 at Zhongshan Hall in the Ximen District of Taipei.

From 1985 to 1987 Tyzen Hsiao earned a master's in composition at the California State University, Los Angeles.

Tyzen Hsiao's teachers included Byong Kon Kim and Milton Stern.

In 1988 Tyzen Hsiao composed the Violin Concerto in D, opus 50.

In 1993 Tyzen Hsiao suffered a heart attack while composing the 1947 Overture.

Tyzen Hsiao returned to Taiwan in 1995 as part of a wave of Taiwanese living abroad who moved back in response to democratic reforms.

In 2002 Tyzen Hsiao suffered a stroke while composing the Love River Symphony.

Tyzen Hsiao moved back to Los Angeles to better enable his recovery and suspended most of his composition activities.

Tyzen Hsiao was awarded Taiwan's National Art Prize, the Wu Sam-lien Musical Contribution Award, the Kaohsiung City Prize for the Arts and the National Cultural Award.

Tyzen Hsiao died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California on 24 February 2015 at the age of 77.