Photo by Andrew Watts

Jon Yu is a Taiwanese-American composer whose music explores notions of ritual, utility, and excess. His recent works focus on sculptural elements in electroacoustic instrumental music.

His music has been performed internationally by ensembles and soloists including Mivos Quartet, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, loadbang, Wet Ink Ensemble, AuditivVokal Dresden, Eco Ensemble, Earplay, AsianArt Ensemble, haegeum player Soo Yeon Lyuh, and percussionist Oded Geizhals. His music has been presented at June in Buffalo, Dian Red Kechil, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Pacific Rim Music Festival, Festival Musica, Festival Barcelona Modern, impuls Festival, outHEAR New Music Week, and IRCAM ManiFeste. He was the recipient of the 2017 Mivos/Kanter Prize for his string quartet O reche modo, and was the laureate of the Prix Alain Baltes for his vocal sextet PEK TI. From 2018-19, he was in residence in Paris at Cité internationale des arts as a fellow of the George Ladd Prix de Paris. He returned to Paris in 2020-21 to study in the Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music at IRCAM under Thierry De Mey. He was awarded with a MacDowell Fellowship in 2024. 

Jon completed his PhD in Music Composition at UC Berkeley, where he studied with Franck Bedrossian, Ken Ueno, and Edmund Campion. He holds a Master’s degree from San Francisco State University, where he studied with Benjamin Sabey. He has also studied privately with Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Rebecca Saunders, and Pierluigi Billone. He currently teaches music theory, composition, orchestration, and musicianship as a lecturer at San José State University.