Derrick Wang

Derrick Wang teaches English to Chinese migrant workers’ children, with Rebecca Black’s “Friday”

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:42:14 +0000

“We so excited”…about education!

Derrick Wang teaches English to Chinese migrant workers' children, with Rebecca Black's "Friday"

Derrick Wang gives guest lecture on Stephen Sondheim, Britney Spears at Shanghai American School Performing Arts Center

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:25:44 +0000

On June 3, 2011, Derrick Wang gave a guest lecture at the Shanghai American School Performing Arts Center, addressing the application of musical analysis to contemporary theater and pop music. Topics covered included repetition and development in Stephen Sondheim’s score for Into the Woods and contrapuntal writing in Max Martin’s songs for Britney Spears. The lecture concluded with a rousing singalong rendition of “Oops… I Did It Again.”

Derrick Wang leads an analysis of "Ever After," from Stephen Sondheim's score for Into the Woods, at the Shanghai American School Performing Arts Center

Derrick Wang to speak at 25th Anniversary of CENTERSTAGE Young Playwrights Festival

admin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:02:50 +0000

Derrick Wang will be a featured guest speaker at the 25th Anniversary of the CENTERSTAGE Young Playwrights Festival on Monday, May 2, 2011 at 7 pm. He will address the value of dramatic writing in contemporary society.

Derrick Wang is an alumnus of the CENTERSTAGE Young Playwrights Festival, having previously won a staged reading for his musical Prom.

For more information about the CENTERSTAGE Young Playwrights Festival, visit the YPF website.

Derrick Wang and Prom to be featured at Off-Broadway NEO7 concert

admin — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:50:12 +0000

Derrick Wang will be featured as composer, lyricist, and pianist at the York Theatre Company’s NEO7, a benefit concert celebrating “New, Emerging, Outstanding” musical theater writers. NEO7 will take place Monday, May 16, 2011 at 7:30pm at Saint Peter’s Theatre in New York, NY.

Derrick Wang will appear in person to perform a selection from his musical Prom with a vocalist to be announced at a later date. A champagne and dessert reception will follow the performance.

For tickets, call (212) 935-5824, ext. 215.
For directions, visit the York Theatre Company’s website.
For more information about NEO7, visit the York Theatre Company’s website.

Prom, a musical about the end of innocence in the age of smartphones, has had selections featured at Harvard University, Yale University, Joe’s Pub at the New York Public Theater, and Baltimore’s Center Stage. [Read more about Prom here.]

NEO7 announcement in Playbill

Derrick Wang’s score for HPT 157: Terms of Frontierment cited in new book on Broadway musicals

admin — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:08:03 +0000

In his new book Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit & The Biggest Flop of the Season – 1959 to 2009, critic Peter Filichia likens the Broadway hit Spamalot to the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ HPT 157: Terms of Frontierment, with music by Derrick Wang:

2004-2005
The Biggest Hit
Monty Python’s Spamalot

The Hasty Pudding Show goes to Broadway.

February 18, 2005. Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Hasty Pudding Theatre. Terms of Frontierment is the 157th musical written by Harvard collegians. This one takes place in the Wild West…

The Hasty Pudding Show is the one place on the planet where you’re guaranteed to hear show music that most sounds like the Golden Age of Broadway. Derrick Wang acknowledged that by including a nice Richard Rodgers “wrong note” in the title song.…

That same night in New York City, another Hasty Pudding Show is being performed…At the Shubert Theatre, Monty Python’s Spamalot is playing its sixth preview.

(pp. 249-250)

Click below for music from HPT 157: Terms of Frontierment:

Derrick Wang - “Terms of Frontierment” (Excerpt)
— from HPT 157: Terms of Frontierment (Hasty Pudding Theatricals)

Loyal Girl Scout Wanda Buymycookies (Todd Bartels) rallies her travelling companions. Lyrics by Maggie Shipstead and John Blickstead.

(N.B. The “Richard Rodgers ‘wrong note’” is the “blue” note sung in the phrase “terms of fron-tier-ment” and elsewhere throughout.)

Derrick Wang - “Glory”
— from HPT 157: Terms of Frontierment (Hasty Pudding Theatricals)

Rugged explorer Luke N. Forglory (Toby Burns) and loyal Girl Scout Wanda Buymycookies (Todd Bartels) set off on a Wild West adventure. Lyrics by Maggie Shipstead and John Blickstead.

Welcome to DerrickWang.com

admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:03:11 +0000

Derrick Wang is a composer, lyricist, and pianist, creating dramatic music for the stage, studio, and concert hall.

LISTEN:

Playlist: To listen to a prepared playlist, click the Play button in the sidebar.
À la carte: Otherwise, simply click on an individual selection to hear it. For example:

Derrick Wang - Valley, Mountain, Sky
— Yale Philharmonia (Live at the Shanghai Grand Theatre)

UPDATES:

Submit the Join form in the sidebar to receive occasional email updates.

NEWS:

Read below for the latest news…

Derrick Wang’s Sonatina to be streamed online, live from the Yale School of Music: October 22, 2010 at 5pm EST

admin — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:22:43 +0000

Award-winning pianist Jeannette Fang will perform Derrick Wang’s Sonatina at the Yale School of Music on Friday, October 22, 2010 at 5pm EST. The performance will be streamed live to the public via the Yale School of Music’s website.

About the Sonatina

World premiere by the composer: Harvard Piano Society, March 2005
Winner of Harvard’s 2005-06 Bach Society Orchestra Composition Competition
- Orchestral version premiered in December 2005

Jeannette Fang, pianist

Jeannette Fang, Pianist

Graduate of Juilliard (Bachelor of Music) and Yale (Master of Music)
First-place winner: Int’l Young Artists Piano Competition, Steinway Society Competition
Has performed at The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall‘s Zankel Hall
Featured on NPR‘s “From the Top” and the McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase
As a child: Won a full scholarship to Juilliard‘s pre-college division
- Won the Juilliard Pre-College Concerto Competition
  - Became a Presidential Scholar in the Arts

Derrick Wang plays the music of Michael Jackson (Part I)

admin — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:45:33 +0000

On June 25, 2010, Derrick Wang played at Lincoln Center and Times Square (New York, NY) to honor the memory of musician Michael Jackson.

Part I:
I Want You Back
I Just Can’t Stop Loving You

Still to come:
Part II
(featuring excerpts from “Thriller,” “Billie Jean,” and “Smooth Criminal”)

Derrick Wang wins BMI Student Composer Award for his opera ISH

admin — Sat, 15 May 2010 01:00:15 +0000

Derrick Wang has been named a winner in the 58th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards, which “recognize superior creative talent” in music composition.

Eleven (11) winners were chosen from throughout the Western Hemisphere. All works were judged under pseudonyms.

Derrick Wang’s BMI award-winning work is the one-act opera ISH.

Awards Chair Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, BMI President and CEO Del Bryant and BMI Foundation President Ralph N. Jackson presented the awards at a reception held on May 14, 2010 at the Jumeirah Essex House Hotel in New York City.

58th Annual BMI Student Composer Award Winners Announced [BMI Foundation]
58th Annual BMI Student Composer Award Winners Announced [BMI]

Watch the New York premiere of ISH (NOTE: Possibly NSFW; contains strong language):

ISH
an opera in ten minutes
words and music by Derrick Wang

New York Premiere / Ars Nova Theater / New York, NY / November 2008

Based on a scene by Edwin Davisson
Directed by Becca Wolff
Video by One Glass Video

CAST
B: Jean-Paul Björlin, tenor
C: Jefferson Behan, tenor
D: Samuel Perwin, baritone
E: Bo Meng, bass-baritone

Derrick Wang, keyboard

Derrick Wang chosen to receive BMI Foundation Pete Carpenter Fellowship

admin — Sat, 15 May 2010 00:00:21 +0000

Derrick Wang has been chosen to receive a BMI Foundation Pete Carpenter Fellowship, which gives aspiring TV and film composers the opportunity to work with the eminent composer Mike Post (NYPD Blue, L.A. Law, Law and Order) at his studio in Los Angeles.

Derrick Wang is featured guest at NYU benefit concert for the China Care Foundation

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:00:28 +0000

On March 26, 2010, Derrick Wang performed as the featured guest at NYU’s YUAN 10: MOT10N, a benefit for the China Care Foundation, which provides medical care to orphaned children in China.

His performance included a solo-piano version of his orchestral work Valley, Mountain, Sky (originally premiered at Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall and at the Shanghai Grand Theatre). An excerpt from his performance was featured on SinoVision on March 28, 2010.

Ars Nova Theater presents “A Whole Lotta ISH,” an evening of music by Derrick Wang

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:25 +0000

On November 16, 2008, Ars Nova Theater presented “A Whole Lotta ISH,” an evening of music by Derrick Wang, as part of its inaugural A.N.T. FEST.

The program featured award-winning works including:

ISH, an opera in ten minutes
- Winner of the BMI Student Composer Award
Playground for string quartet
- Winner of the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award
Hors d’oeuvres for clarinet and piano
- Winner of the American Modern Ensemble Composition Competition
excerpts from the Cello Sonata
- Winner of the John Day Jackson Prize

Derrick Wang selected as Resident Artist at American Lyric Theater

admin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:38:04 +0000

Derrick Wang has been selected as a Resident Artist for American Lyric Theater’s 2008-2009 Composer/Librettist Development Program (CLDP), the nation’s only operatic young artist program dedicated to writers.

Residencies were offered to eight artists in the U.S. for the 2008-2009 season. Of the eight artists, two (of which Wang is one) will be writing both music and text for their residency.

At the end of the residency, selected artists will be invited to have full-length works developed by American Lyric Theater.

The 2008-2009 CLDP is led by Lawrence Edelson (Producing Artistic Director, American Lyric Theater), Mark Adamo (composer-librettist of Little Women and Lysistrata), and Cori Ellison (Dramaturg and Director of Supertitles, New York City Opera).

American Lyric Theater’s Composer/Librettist Development Program

Derrick Wang’s Valley, Mountain, Sky premieres at Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall and the Shanghai Grand Theatre

admin — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:59:17 +0000

Derrick Wang’s Valley, Mountain, Sky, an orchestral piece based on Chinese folk songs, was premiered by the Yale Philharmonia to a sold-out house at Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall on July 22, 2008. On July 25, 2008, it received its Shanghai premiere at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

Sellout at the Forbidden City [Musicathlon]

Derrick Wang wins Yale’s John Day Jackson Prize in music composition

admin — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:53:37 +0000

Derrick has been named winner of Yale’s John Day Jackson Prize in music composition for his Sonata for Cello and Piano.

Derrick Wang wins American Modern Ensemble’s Third Annual Composition Competition

admin — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:07:12 +0000

Derrick Wang is named winner of the American Modern Ensemble’s Third Annual Composition Competition for his work Hors d’oeuvres for clarinet and piano.

Hors d’oeuvres will be given its New York premiere by the American Modern Ensemble at its “Food and Music” concerts on May 17 and 18, 2008 at the Tenri Cultural Institute of New York.

The American Modern Ensemble Composition Competition is open to American composers age 35 or younger. Submitted works are judged under pseudonyms. One winner is selected each year. The winner receives a cash prize, a New York premiere performance of the winning work, and an archival recording.

American Modern Ensemble: Composition Competition

Derrick Wang wins ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:36:34 +0000

Derrick Wang is named a winner of a 2007 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award for his string quartet Playground.

The award will be presented at the 8th Annual ASCAP Concert Music Awards at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater in New York on May 24, 2007.

The ASCAP Foundation Names Recipients of the 2007 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards