Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Appoints New Composer-in-Residence

Huang Ruo will hold the position from 2025 to 2028

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) has announced that composer Huang Ruo will serve as its new Composer-in-Residence. He will undertake a three-year tenure, to begin in Fall 2025, and his activities have been funded by June and Simon K.C. Li.

In the first two years of his tenure, Huang will serve as a curatorial member of LACO's artistic leadership team and will be responsible for programming the CURRENT series, which comprises concerts in non-traditional venues centered on a specific theme.

He will also lead LACO Sound Investment, a program established in 2001 that involves audience members in discussions surrounding the commissioning and development of new classical works.

Then, in the final year of the residency, Huang will compose a new chamber symphony to be premiered at the Colburn School’s Kohl Hall.

A past composer-in-residence of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Huang is also presently in residence at the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. His output is made up of cross-genre works, such as the staged oratorio Angel Island (which addresses the suffering of Chinese detainees at the California immigration center in the early 1900s) and City of Floating Sounds, which incorporates a phone app to bring people into the concert hall, much like the Pied Piper.

"On behalf of everyone at Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, we are pleased to welcome Huang Ruo as our Composer in Residence," said Jaime Martín. "A singular artist, Ruo creates compelling genre-spanning work. We look forward to collaborating with him on exciting new musical frontiers."

"What drew me to want to become part of the LACO Family is its excellency, innovation, and openness to new ideas and inspirations from other cultures," Huang said.