Au Yong

Byron Au Yong

Associate Professor

Full-Time Faculty
Masonic 202A
(415) 422-4368

Biography

Byron Au Yong (歐陽良仁) composes songs of dislocation, music for a changing world. Variety calls his work “claustrophobic and expansive, intimate and existential, personal and political all at once.” Highlights include Activist Songbook (Asian Arts Initiative, Hopkins Center for the Arts, International Festival of Arts & Ideas), Stuck Elevator (American Conservatory Theater, Long Wharf Theater, Nashville Opera), Kidnapping Water: Bottled Operas (Bumbershoot Festival of the Arts) and Piano Concerto–Houston (CounterCurrent Festival).

Au Yong’s research and teaching incorporate acoustic ecology, ethical entrepreneurship, global sustainability, music theory, and the performing arts. 
He has been an artist-in residence with the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, Lucas Artists Residency, and Yale Institute for Music Theater. Honors include a Creative Capital Award and Sundance Institute Time Warner Foundation Fellowship. The Seattle Weekly says Au Yong’s “interdisciplinary works are as exquisite and imaginative as they are unclassifiable.”

Education

  • New York University, MFA in Musical Theatre Writing, 2005
  • University of California, Los Angeles, MA in World Arts and Cultures/Dance, 2003
  • University of Washington, BA/BM in Music Composition/Theory, 1996

Prior Experience

  • Adjunct Faculty, Cornish College of the Arts
  • Teaching Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Public Program Manager, Wing Luke Museum

Awards & Distinctions

  • Artist Trust Fellowship

  • Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award

  • Creative Capital Award

  • MAP Fund Award

  • Sundance Institute/Time Warner Foundation Fellow

  • Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Award

  • Time Warner Foundation Fellowship

Selected Publications

Media