Biography
Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violin/ viola) has created works ranging from jazz, classical, “new” and world music. Stories Before Within (2008, Innova) featuring his jazz quartet EDGE, was chosen as one of the Top Ten CDs of 2008 by Coda Magazine. Mr. Hwang’s chamber opera, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown (New World Records), presented by the Asia Society in 2001, was named one of the “Top Ten Opera Recordings of 2005” by Opera News. Commitment, The Complete Recordings, 1981-1983, from a collective quartet that was Mr. Hwang’s first band, was voted as “2010 Reissued Recording of the Year” by All About Jazz / New York. His octet Burning Bridge, commissioned by Chamber Music America / New Jazz Works, recently premiered at the Chicago World Music Festival.Mr. Hwang has also received from US Artists International, the American Music Center, Meet the Composer/New Residencies, the National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and others. Spontaneous River, Mr. Hwang’s orchestra of string improvisers, performed in Vision Festival XIV and will release the recording of Symphony of Souls in early 2011. As violinist, Mr. Hwang has worked with Reggie Workman, William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Vladamir Tarasov, Henry Threadgill and many others.
