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, Duo Signal, ELISION Ensemble, AuditivVokal Dresden, Earplay, AsianArt Ensemble, haegeum player Soo Yeon Lyuh, and percussionist Oded Geizhals, with performances 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. Jon received the 2017 Mivos/Kanter Prize for his string quartet O reche modo, and was awarded the Prix Alain Baltes for his vocal sextet PEK TI. From 2018-19, he was in residence at Cité internationale des arts in Paris 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. In 2024, he was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship. Most recently, he was a 2026 Styrian Artist-in-Residence (St.A.i.R.) in Graz, Austria, working with Schallfeld Ensemble.

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.