IRENE HUANG

Irene Huang is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in composition and piano performance at the Eastman School of Music. She earned her piano ARCT with First Class Honors with Distinction in 2018 and received the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Gold Medal for achieving the highest ARCT violin mark in Ontario in 2022. During her high school years, Irene served as the pianist in the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and the collaborative pianist for the North Toronto Songbirds. She also has extensive collaborative experience, having worked with vocal, string, woodwind, and brass musicians for recitals, exams, competitions, and festivals.

Irene’s diverse musical background has fueled her passion for composing. In 2022, her composition “Face the Music” won first place in the United Nations’ Pitching Peace Youth Music Challenge and was featured during their inaugural event for the International Day for Disarmament on March 1, 2023. Since 2023, she has been the composer-in-residence for the Chinese Artists Society of Toronto Youth Orchestra. In 2024, Irene’s composition “The Light of Yule” received the Promising High-School Composer Prize from Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Composers Competition. Her work "Deaf Pillows" was selected by the Musical Life Foundation to premiere in Carnegie Hall on April 30, 2024. Last summer, Irene was appointed as the creative resident by Morningside Music Bridge, where her composition “Still Small Voice” received its world premiere in the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. Recently, Irene’s new song “BE HAPPY!” won first prize at Eastman's Sparks & Wiry Cries’ songSLAM competition.

Irene is strongly passionate about shedding light on works by emerging composers. Her favourite musical pastime is learning newly-composed pieces and discussing interpretational ideas with the composers themselves. Additionally, Irene loves collaborative projects and enjoys playing with instrumentalists and vocalists alike. In her spare time, she reads books, watches movies, listens to music, draws people she loves in her sketchbook, and sightreads chamber music with friends.