Ching-Wen Chao received her Doctorate degree at Stanford, where she studied with Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough and Chris Chafe. She was also committed to her research in electroacoustic music at CCRMA Stanford and lectured at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and at Stanford University. She is currently Associate Professor in Composition in the Music Department at National Taiwan Normal University as well as the Curator of Innovation Series by the National Performing Arts Center, the most prestigious art performance venue in Taiwan. Chao's new work Dark Light for viola and chamber ensemble was recently premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in April 2016. She was the Creative Director for the theater-concert productions “Void” (Oct 2013) and “Worlds apart, Dream together” (Dec 2014) by the National Concert Hall, in collaboration with Taipei Chamber Singers and Little Giant Orchestra, as well as the Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam. Recent commissions given by Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (June 2014) and China Conservatory (as Creative Director and composer, Sep 2014), as well as major performing groups in Taiwan. Recent reviews include discussion of her compositions in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik by Schott and in the Editions L’Harmattan Paris. She has also collaborated with Arditti String Quartet, Klangforum Wien, Phace, California EAR Unit, the Eighth Blackbird, etc., and her works have performed recently in Asian Music Festival, La Fabbrica Del Canto in Italy, World Music Days, Polyfollia in France, the Electroacoustic Music Society Conference and Darmstadt Institut fuer Neue Musik und Musikerziehung.