JEN SHYU
Guggenheim Fellow, USA Fellow, Doris Duke Artist, multilingual vocalist-composer-multi-instrumentalist-dancer Jen Shyu, “one of the most creative vocalists in contemporary improvised music” (The Nation), was born in Peoria, Illinois, to Taiwanese and East Timorese immigrants. She’s produced eight albums, performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, was named Downbeat’s 2017 Rising Star Female Vocalist, and is a Fulbright scholar speaking 10 languages. “When I Have Power” from her latest solo show Zero Grasses commissioned by John Zorn and her critically acclaimed album Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses made NPR’s “Best Songs of 2021” list. Jen is a renowned educator, having moved her teaching studio to her Patreon. Jen is co-founder of M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians) and is a Paul Simon Music Fellows Guest Artist and Steinway Artist.
Her current instruments in performance include piano, violin, Taiwanese moon lute (2 strings), Chinese er hu (2 strings), Japanese biwa (4 strings), Korean gayageum (12 strings), Korean soribuk (drum), and Korean gong called “ggwaenggwari."
Reviews
"Shyu turned the stage into a space of imaginative ritual; she framed storytelling and mythmaking as contemporary phenomena — even necessities….That magic remained throughout the set: A simple jazz club stage became a territory of belief, narrative and wonder."
— NEW YORK TIMES, Giovanni Russonello