I make music that tells stories.
I'm a cross-genre composer-storyteller who loves soaring melodies, dream worlds, and stories that challenge our preconceptions about what is true, good, or worth wanting. I'm especially drawn to inventive works that subvert traditional storytelling arcs or musical expectations, that touch us both philosophically and emotionally.
My mission is to create magical experiences that spark the kinds of thoughtful, emotional conversations that make us feel alive, that change the course of our lives—and to do so while fully honoring my collaborators as ends in themselves.
I'm inspired by the epic energy of nouveau cirque, the lush soundscapes of classical orchestras, the character-driven storytelling of musical theatre, the immersive power of film & game music, and the authentic heart of indie & nomad folk songs.
The most beautiful thing in the world to me is people who care deeply.
Art that has recently inspired me.
Feel free to say hi if you'd like to talk about it!
- music — la valse, kurios, 調和 oto, before your father hears us, winter, union strike folk song, genius, kara toprak, young and menace, songs of the early morning no.1, son lux, beautiful, dreaming awake, out there, jovano jovanke
- words — acorn, cosmicomics, sticks, the book of light, the first few pages of pure colour, the giving tree, the merchant and the alchemist's gate, white rabbit red rabbit
- shows — 2008 olympic opening ceremony, downstate, little shop, merrily we roll along, the inheritance, wolf play
- installations — the visitors, perfectly clear (ganzfeld)
- films — aftersun, anima, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, everything everywhere all at once, hero, love me, minari, past lives, poor things, spirited away, squid game
- games — monument valley, chrono trigger, florence
Other stuff that probably goes here.
My work has premiered at places like Lincoln Center and The Public Theater, and been supported by folks like the National Music Theater Conference, the National Alliance for Musical Theater, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Current & recent projects include Yoko's Husband's Killer's Japanese Wife, Gloria (with Brandy Hoang Collier and Clare Fuyuko Bierman; the Vivace Award-winning musical commissioned by the 5th Avenue Theatre, developed at the O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference, presented at the NAMT Festival of New Musicals, and one of three finalists for the American Playwriting Foundation's Relentless Award; developed with support from the Civilians, Johnny Mercer Writers Grove, MAP Fund, NAMT Frank Young Fund, Orchard Project, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and Theatre Latté Da), VISARE (an immersive circus fantasia with Bierman, which won the New Voices Project and was selected for the International Songwriters’ Showcase at Theatre Creation in Tokyo), four; interwoven (a concept quartet of actor-musicians, commissioned by New Music Theatre Project and premiered at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music), Starsong (a light puppetry piece with Andrew Strano, which was performed Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Theater and at the Kaufman Music Center), [untitled hat project] (with Bierman, a tiny immersive experience produced with a NYFA grant at an eclectic Williamsburg hatmaker's studio), a new commission from Claire's Continuum with Kevin Lee Sun, and Passage to my Parents (with Bierman and Collier, a new musical that adapts a long Chinese scroll painting into a mythical music theatre piece; NYSCA Commission, Johnny Mercer Writers Grove).
Artist-in-Residence at Millay Arts, the Jentel Foundation, Casa Uno, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 2025. Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Artist 2024, Vivace Award Winner 2023, Kimmel Harding Nelson Artist 2023, Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriter 2022, NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing MFA Fellow 2021. I serve on the Music Committee for the Dramatists Guild of America.
As a conductor, pianist, accordionist, and vocalist, I've performed on national TV for CBS Sunday Morning, on Broadway with Cabaret and Kimberly Akimbo, at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, with Khorikos at National Sawdust and (le) poisson rouge in New York and the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum in DC, and for house concerts across the country. I've music directed for new works like Virgin's ship-wide immersive experience Scarlet Night.
The proud daughter of Chinese immigrants, I grew up in Palo Alto, studied computer science and philosophy at Stanford University, organized the Viennese Ball in San Francisco, and built products at Dropbox before deciding to follow the music.
