Chen Yi, born in Guangzhou in 1953, is a distinguished professor at the Conservatory of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and the recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her music is published by Theodore Presser Company, commissioned and performed worldwide by such ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, recorded on BIS, New Albion, CRI, Teldec, Angle, Nimbus, Albany, New World, Quartz, Koch & China Record Co, among others. She has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2005, and appointed the Changjiang Scholar Professor at the CCOM by the China Ministry of Education in 2006, which has brought her to Beijing for intensive residencies with young composers the last three years.