Victoria Cheah is a composer whose work concerns boundaries, transitions, sustained effort, and intimacies within social-performance rituals. Her work has been commissioned and/or featured by ensembles and presenters including Talujon, Either/Or, Non-Event, Switch Ensemble, Line Upon Line, Han Chen, andPlay, Yarn/Wire, Wavefield Ensemble, MATA Festival, Guerilla Opera, Ensemble Dal Niente, Vertixe Sonora, Marilyn Nonken, PRISM Quartet, and performed by others. Recordings of their music can be found on Dinzu Artefacts, New Focus Recordings, and XAS Records. Cheah currently serves as Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory, as well as Director of Production of Talea Ensemble.

From 2011-2015, Cheah served as the founding executive director of Boston new music sinfonietta Sound Icon. She has worked with ensembles and festivals including Composers Conference, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Composit Festival, and Cantata Profana towards the realization of contemporary music events in New York, Boston (USA) and Rieti (IT). Previously, Cheah has taught music, research, and writing related courses as an instructor at Longy School of Music, Brandeis University, and as a teaching fellow at Harvard University. As a composer, she has attended academies including Sommerakademie Schloss Solitude, Darmstadt, Fontainebleau, VIPA, SICPP, The Walden School, and others. Cheah holds a B.A. in music from City University of New York Hunter College (Macaulay Honors College) and a Ph.D. in music composition & theory from Brandeis University.

CONTACT: cheah.v @ gmail.com
CV: email me

EVENTS AND PROJECTS

September 10, 2023
Walk for a shell, premiere. New Thread Quartet. DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall, New York, NY, USA. 

September 18, 2023
Lake and a vow, premiere. Schallfeld Ensemble, Pierre-Andre Valade, conductor. Klangspuren Festival, Schwaz, Austria. 

September 24, 2023
Étude: months, premiere. Han Chen, piano. National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY, USA. 

September 25, 2023
We drank wine from the bottle on a rooftop next to god. Switch Ensemble, Shapeshifter Lab, Brooklyn, NY, USA. 

September 28, 2023
Solo set (and sets by Nomi Epstein, Tatiana Castro-Mejia). The Lilypad, Cambridge, MA, USA. 

October 26 & 27, 2023
Weather not climate, premiere. Line upon line, Austin, TX, USA. 

December 8, 2023 
It has only shelves, premiere. Either/Or Ensemble. University Settlement, New York, NY, USA. 

April 15, 2024
Pool with two figures, excerpt from larger work – premiere. Talujon. Roulette, New York, NY, USA.

May 23, 2024
New work, premiere. Rhythm Method, Brooklyn, NY, USA.

Yarn / Wire CURRENTS 8
https://yarnwire.bandcamp.com/album/yarn-wire-currents-vol-8

a butterfly on your shoulder into years and years to come
andPlay (Maya Bennardo & Hannah Levinson), released on Dinzu Artefacts
bandcamp: best experimental, March 2022
video (audio/video: David Bird)