Sydney Wang
Composer
Sydney Wang (b. 2002) is an aspiring composer studying with Professor Ian
Krouse of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. She has been in the Los
Angeles Philharmonic’s Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship
Program since 2017 under the mentorship of Sarah Gibson, Thomas
Kotcheff, and Andrew Norman. Her works have won top prizes in national
and international competitions for young composers, including the Robert
Avalon International Competition and the BMI Student Composer Award. Her short orchestral piece, Moonlit River, was performed in May 2017 by the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra in the Ambassador Auditorium. Sydney was also a part of Sunset ChamberFest in June 2018, where her chamber piece, The Writing Set in Stone, was performed at USC’s Cammilleri Hall. In addition, her flute and string quintet, Dances from the West Side, inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s score for West Side Story, was performed at the Pasadena Symphony’s 2018 Annual Moonlight Sonata Gala in September 2018. Most recently, Sydney has been commissioned by the Modesto Symphony to write a song cycle, which will be premiered in
May 2020. Sydney has been playing piano since the age of four and is currently studying with Dr. Sarkis Baltaian. She has won many awards in piano competitions in Southern California, including Southern California Junior
Bach Festival, Southwestern Youth Music Festival, Los Angeles Young Pianist Competition, Kathryn Gawartin Chopin Piano Competition, Glendale Piano Competition, and CAMPT Contemporary Music Competition. In February 2019, she played in a CAPMT piano masterclass with Jeffrey Kahane. In addition to her solo repertoire, Sydney played piano in the Ed and Mari Edelman Chamber Institute at the Colburn School for 4 years and her piano trio group was featured in Sundays Live at LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) in 2016. From 2018-19, she played in an honors piano trio group in the Los Angeles Junior Chamber Music program. Sydney also plays cello in the La Cañada High School Advanced Orchestra, and her piece, Gateway to Atlantis, for string orchestra and flute was performed at their annual Fall Concert last year with Sydney conducting.
Aside from her passion for music and composition, Sydney loves playing tennis and is a member of La Cañada High School’s varsity tennis team. She also enjoys reading, writing, art, and traveling around the world.