Dr. Dorothy Chang was born in Winfield, Illinois in 1970. She began her music studies on piano at age six and began composition at age fourteen. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music from the University of Michigan and her doctorate in Music from Indiana State University. She has previously served on the music faculty at Indiana State and, since 2003, has been a Professor of Music and Composition at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.

Her work often reflects the eclectic mix of musical influences from her youth, including popular music, folk music, and elements of traditional Chinese music. Additionally, much of her music is inspired by place, time, memory, and personal histories. Her total catalog includes over seventy works for solo, chamber, and large ensembles as well as collaborations involving theatre, dance, and video. Her interest in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration has led to projects including a radio play adaptation of Gertrude Stein’s White Wines for four vocalists and speaking percussionist, several mixed chamber ensemble works for Chinese and Western instruments, and a collaboration with choreographer Yukichi Hattori and four other composers in the large-scale True North Symphonic Ballet premiered in 2017 by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Most recently, she composed a new double concerto for erhu (Chinese fiddle) and piano, which premiered in 2018 by the Piano-Erhu Project and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.