This is my goal:
to compose music that delights and engages the performer as a co-creator through the power of storytelling.
COMPOSER OF THE MONTH (January 2026)
Chee-Hwa Tan
Chee-Hwa Tan is a composer, pianist and teacher who is passionate about helping young musicians grow and learn to love the arts.
She grew up in Malaysia and moved to the United States when she went to college. She began composing in graduate school, writing pieces for her piano students to help them advance to the next level and play more expressively. She used her favorite poetry as the basis of her first collection of pieces and made the music sound like the poems – A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Ms. Tan teaches at the college level, most recently at the Univ. of Denver Lamont School of Music.
Her dad was in the military, so she grew up on a military base. They bought a Yamaha piano at the commissary – which is kind of like buying a piano at a grocery store!.
- She grew up immersed in the arts. Her mom was a Chinese brush artist and her aunt was a ballet dancer—and she took dance classes as a child.
- This helped her think about music through movement and visual art. She believes the way you move helps create sound and feeling in music.
Composer’s Tool Kit
- She has synesthesia, which means she “hears” music when she reads poems or looks at artwork.
- She often starts a piece away from the piano, by thinking of an emotion or feeling she wants to explore, then she hears the sound/patterns and adjusts the patterns according to the level she is writing for.
Advice for Students
- She was interested in composing and conducting but focused on becoming a pianist because she didn’t see women in those roles. Later, she realized that anyone can make music and you should never limit your dreams.
Click the links below for listening assignments
- “Rain” from Through the Windowpane (Piano Trio)
- “Rain” (Piano Solo)
- “Looking Glass River” from Through the Windowpane (Piano Trio)
- “Looking Glass River” (Piano Solo)
- “Nocturne on a Theme” of Dayung Sampan. (Piano and Cello)
- “Once Upon A Journey” Bk 1 No.4 Dancing in the Rain (Piano Solo)
- “Birthday Suite, VII.”, Jester’s Jig (Piano Solo)
- “Once Upon A Journey” Bk 1, No.1 Awaking (Piano Solo)
