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Hao Huang,

Professor of Music; Bessie and Cecil Frankel Endowed Chair in Music
Music
Phone: 73266
[email protected]

Biography

Currently the endowed Bessie and Cecil Frankel Chair in Music at Scripps College, Dr. Hao Huang has served as a four-time United States Information Agency Artistic Ambassador to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He has received critical acclaim in over two dozen countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. Huang was awarded grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, the New York and Colorado Councils of the Arts, and the California Meet the Composer Series. In 2008, Dr. Huang was honored as a Fulbright Scholar in Music and American Studies at Eötvös Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary; he also served on the roster of the Fulbright Specialists in American Studies from 2012-2017. His scholarship includes articles in refereed journals of Great Britain Hungary, Greece, Japan, China and the USA, that span piano pedagogy, general music studies, popular music, ethnomusicology, jazz, anthropology, American Studies, and Humanities. His scholarly work has been recognized by the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Washington Post and National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.”

Hao Huang was the initiator/organizer/leader of Scripps College music faculty delegation visits to the College of Arts of Xiamen University, PRC over the summers of 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017. During the academic years of 2015-2016 and 2017-2018, he served as Director of the Scripps College Humanities Institute; from 2018-2023, he served as co-director of the Mellon Interdisciplinary Humanities Initiative at Scripps College. He. has received invitations to be artist-in-residence from the Cultural Park at the Podere Conti Racani, Umbria, IT; La Macina di San Cresci, Greve, Chianti IT; Dar Meso Sarl, dir. Belgian Indignatus Productions, Tunis TN; KAMEN Artist Residency, Bosnia and Herzegovina; he was also honored by a California Writing Residency from Yefe Nof + 826LA at Lake Arrowhead CA.

Academic History

  • A.B. Harvard College, Leonard Bernstein Scholarship
  • M.M. The Juilliard School of Music, Piano Award
  • D.M.A. State University of New York at Stony Brook, Graduate Council Fellow

Academic Focus

In addition to being a concert performer and scholar of Western art music, I have published articles in refereed journals of Great Britain Hungary, Greece, Japan, China and the USA, that span general music studies, popular music, ethnomusicology, jazz, anthropology, American Studies and Humanities. My current professional activities continue to center around performing and teaching music, but also include producing live and webcast performances that address anti-Asian American violence in the USA, as well as creating poetry and drama..

Prof. Huang has produced a multi-episode podcast series about the 1871 LA Chinatown massacre, that commemorates the worst mass race lynching on the West Coast, when at least 20 Chinese immigrants were killed in one night by a crowd of about 500 Angelenos. It was released in spring 2021, and reached #23 in the history category of Apple Podcasts https://blood-on-gold-mountain.captivate.fm/After the first three episodes of this podcast were released in China on Baidu in early 2023 with printed Chinese translations, over 1.5 million downloads were registered.

In fall 2021, he collaborated with dance faculty colleague Prof. Kevin Williamson on a Scripps College TransArts performance, Chinatown Elegy, a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the 1871 LA Chinatown massacre on Bowling Green lawn. https://scrippscollege.box.com/s/mayg2egww447j5765hhr158rdp7xn6hi In spring 2022 a podcast of his play Jianchi/Perseverence was released during Asian American/Pacific Islander heritage month on https://blood-on-gold-mountain.captivate.fm/search/1?query=jianchi#showEpisodes Untranslated, this garnered over 500,000 downloads on Baidu.

In fall 2022, he was Project Director of a National Endowment for the Arts grant award multimedia performance "American Dreams-Asian Nightmares" at the USC Pacific Asia Museum and Garrison Theater at Scripps College. The three-part program combined live acoustic and electronic music with Anti-Colonial performance art to spark new dialogues about what it means and how it feels to be Asian-American.

Courses Taught

  • AM ST 103CC, Introduction to American Culture
  • Humanities Core I: Culture, Knowledge and Representation
  • Humanities Core III: Blues Jazzlines-- More Than Music
  • Humanities Core III: Representing LA: Rock-and-Roll Realities
  • MUS 81, Great Works of Western Music: Sound and Meaning
  • MUS 110b, Music in Western Civilization II
  • MUS 118, Music in the United States
  • MUS 121 SC - Music of the Spirits: Hakka, Hawaiian and Tewa Pueblo Indian
  • MUS 122, The Color of Music: Race in Blues and Jazz
  • MUS 125, Fight the Power: Music in L.A.
  • MUS 171a, Piano
  • MUS 171b, Piano
  • MUS 171bF, Piano
  • MUS 189, Junior Recital
  • MUS 190, Senior Music Colloquium (offered annually in the fall)
  • MUS 191, Senior Thesis
  • MUS 191H, Honors Senior Thesis
  • MUS 199, Independent Study in Music: Reading and Research

Selected Research and Publications

  • 2024: book chapter,"Shanghai Sounds: Austro-German Jewish Refugee Musicians in the City “Above the Sea” from 1938 to 1949" in in German-speaking Jewish Refugees in Asia, 1930-1950: Shelter from the Storm? (Routledge Press)
  • 2024: article, “On Teaching about Music and the Environment,” in IMPACT: The Journal for the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning, Boston University, 13:1, Winter 2024, 32-38 https://sites.bu.edu/impact/previous-issues/impact-winter-2024/on-teaching-about-music-and-the-environment/
  • 2023: article, Huang, H. and Rockwell, J., “Relational practices in Bali: Balinese Hinduism, subak, and music,” in International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies IJAPS, Vol 19 Iss. 1, 173–190. School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia *text on file
  • 2022: Chapter 14, “From Passive ‘Vessels’ of Traditional Culture to Symbolic Cultural Markers: The Geetharines in Mauritius,” co-author D. V. Ballgobin in Women in the making of Mauritian History,(University of Mauritius Press), ed. Vijaya Teelock, pp. 121-128
  • 2022: article, "California Isn't a Liberal Sanctuary where Asian Americans are Concerned” in History News Network, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, George Washington University *text on file
  • 2021: Chapter 10, "Xiao Youmei: Chinese musical patriot or comprador Germanophile" for Sino-German Encounters and Entanglements: Transnational Politics and Culture, 1890-1950 (Palgrave Series in Asian German Studies)
  • 2021: Chapter 11, “What Beethoven Means in the People’s Republic of China: Hero or Demon” in German East Asian Encounters and Entanglements: Affinity in Culture and Politics since 1945, ed. J. Cho, (Routledge Studies in Modern History)
  • 2021: Article, “The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Environment in the Asia Pacific” in Asian Journal of  Humanities and Social Studies, 9(2).
  • 2020: Article, “COVID-19 and the Environment: Reflections on the Pandemic in Asia,” EnviroLab Asia    journal (Claremont Colleges, CA), Vol. 4, Issue 1 
  • 2020: Chapter 8, “What Beethoven Meant in China, 1900-1949: Music, Ideology and Power,” in Musical Entanglements between Germany and East Asia: Transnational Affinity in the 20th and 21st Centuries (Palgrave Series in Asian German Studies)
  • 2020: Article, “Music in STEAM,” The STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) Journal, Vol. 5, Iss. 1
  • 2020: Article, “Nature and the Spirit: Tri Hita Karana, Sacred Artistic Practices, and Musical Ecology in Bali,”(co-author Joti Rockwell), EnviroLab Asia journal (Claremont Colleges, CA), Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2
  • 2019: Article, “Afterthoughts: Nature, Culture, and Shamanism in Inner Mongolia, PRC,” EnviroLab Asia journal (Claremont Colleges, CA), Vol. 3, Issue 3, 2
  • 2019: Article, “Nature and the Spirit: Ritual, Environment and the Subak in Bali”, EnviroLab Asia journal (Claremont Colleges, CA), Vol. 3, Issue 2, 1
  • 2017: “Making Transcultural Connections Through Teaching Piano in China”, Piano Journal, London, Issue 113 (European Piano Teachers Association)
  • 2017: “What We Learned About Music  in China:  Teaching Piano Lessons in the PRC” (co-author Tatiana Thibodeaux), American Music Teacher, journal of the Music Teachers National Association, June/July
  • 2016: Article, “Teaching Piano in China: Building Transcultural and Transhistorical Bridges through Music Education” (co-author Tatiana Thibodeaux), International Research in Higher Education, Vol. 1, No. 2
  • 2014: Article, “Perspectives on Body Posture for Pianists” (co-author Tatiana Thibodeaux), Проблемы Постановки Пианистического Аппарата, Collection: Arts Education: Problems and Perspectives, Художественное Образование: Проблемы и Перспективы Развития.;УМЦ УПИ with Ural State Pedagogical University, Ekaterinburg, Russia
  • 2014: “She Sang as She Spoke: Billie Holiday and Aspects of Speech Intonation and Diction”, (co-author Rachel V. Huang) Jazz Perspectives, UK (Rouledge)
  • 2013: “Jazzlines: Drawing relationships between American poetry, jazz and gospel music”, TOPOS, Bilingual Journal of Space and Humanities (Pannon Eygetem, Veszprem
  • 2012: Review of HH article: “From Confucius to Chopin”, The Wilson Quarterly, Washington D.C.
  • 2011: “Why Chinese People Play Western Classical Music: Transcultural Roots of Music Philosophy”, International Journal of Music Education, Vol 30, No. 2 (ISME)
  • 2011: “Building Bridges: How American Colleges Should Approach China” (co-author Dru Gladney), The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • 2011: “The Harlem Renaissance and the ‘American Dream’”, Humanities International, vol. 3 (Xiamen University Press)
  • 2011: “Enter the Blues: Jazz Poems by Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown”, Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (Humanities Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen), XVII, No. 1
  • 2011: “Technical Exercises for Pianists”, Piano Journal, London, Vol. 29, No. 91 (European Piano Teachers Association)
  • 2010: Article in translation, “Pianists’ posture: a first step towards comfort at the keyboard”, Greek Society for Music Education Journal, Vol. 20
  • 2006: CD release, THE GOLD COAST TRIO “live at Mondavi Center” (Agnelli CD-2)
  • 2004: Book chapter, The Oekuu Shadeh of Ohkay Owingeh in Voices From Four Directions, University of Nebraska Press
  • 2003: “Voices from Chinese Rock, Past and Present Tense: Social Commentary and Construction of Identity in Yaogun Yinyue from Tiananmen to the present”, Popular Music and Society, vol. 26, nr. 2 (Routledge)
  • 2001: “Yaogun Yinyue: rethinking mainland Chinese rock 'n' roll”, Popular Music, Vol. 20, Nr. 1 (Cambridge University Press)

Awards and Honors

  • 2024: Dorland Mountain Arts Colony Residency program award, Temecula CA
  • 2023: Invited as artist-in-residence by Cultural Park at the Podere Conti Racani, Umbria, directed by the International Theater Residencies organization in Rome IT
  • 2023: Marian and Charles Holmes Performing Arts Fund of the Claremont Colleges Award for “Iron Horse Road” podcast
  • 2022-23: Project Director, National Endowment of the Arts Grant for Arts, Music Division, for "American Dreams/Asian Nightmares," Scripps College and USC Pacific Asia Museum, M. Huang composer
  • 2022: California Writers Residency award, Yefe Nof + 826LA, Lake Arrowhead CA
  • 2022: Scripps Racial Justice and Equity Fellowship award, research in Anti-Chinese Violence in California at the Library of Congress, National Archives, Bancroft Library of UC Berkeley
  • 2022: La Macina di San Cresci Artist-in-residency award, Pieve di San Cresci, X sec., Greve, Chianti IT 
  • 2022: M. and C. Holmes Performing Arts Fund grant award for May Asian American/PI Heritage month podcast production of the play Jianchi/Perseverance 
  • 2022: Cultural Park at the Podere Conti Racani Artist-in-residency by award, Umbria, directed by the International Theater Residencies organization in Rome IT, delayed to 2023
  • 2022: The International Center for the Arts at Monte Castello di Vibio Artist-in-residency
  • 2022: Dar Meso Sarl Artist-in-residency,dir. Belgian Indignatus Productions, Tunis TNSA
  • 2022: National Endowment of the Arts Grants for Arts Project, Music Division, for “The Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre and Beyond>>>American Dreams/Asian Nightmares,” Scripps College
  • 2021: UCLA Chancellor’s Arts’ Initiative Award for “Chinatown Elegy” performance/educational event commemorating the 150th anniversary of the 1871 LA Chinatown Massacre at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument
  • 2021: Featured speaker, WAMC’s (NPR) Academic Minute, a podcast series dedicated to condensed updates on groundbreaking research
  • 2021: Pomona College Annual 10-Minute New Play Festival Prize (Play Fest), Top Five  Winning Play: BUBONIC PLAGUE: Fear, Loathing and Love in San Francisco (1900, The Year  of the Rat)
  • 2021: Pomona College Annual 10-Minute New Play Competition (Play Fest), Award Winning Play
  • 2020, 21: KAMEN artist residency by invitation for composition, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • 2020: Distinguished guest panelist, “Beethoven in China and America,” Camerata Pacifica LA
  • 2020: Asia EnviroLab Clinic Class Lab Award for “Indigenous ecological practices in Taiwan:  ritual, music and tradition in Taroko Gorge”
  • 2020: KAMEN artist residency for composition, Bosnia and Herzegovina (postponed due to COVID-19)
  • 2019: Kellogg Foundation Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) grant, Los Angeles Chinatown  Massacre commemoration performance event
  • 2019: Marian and Charles Holmes Performing Arts Fund grant, LA Chinatown Massacre Commemoration podcast, "Blood on Gold Mountain"
  • 2019: Asia EnviroLab Faculty Lab Award for fieldwork project “Nature and the Spirit: sacred artistic practices and ecology in Bali and China” (Bali: Subak water temple system and Pemangku gamelan; PRC: Yongji Puzhou Fruit Association, Shanxi; Hulinbuir, Inner Mongolia PRC)
  • 2018, ‘16, ‘09,  ’06, ’04,’99 Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Research, Creative Work and/or Performance, Scripps College
  • 2016: Invited participant, “Globalizing the Liberal Arts” symposium and workshop, Yale-NUS and Yale University
  • 2015: Distinguished Visiting Faculty appointment, Arts College, Xiamen University , PRC
  • 2014: Initiated and co-directed “Haiyan Hurricane Disaster in Philippines” Benefit gala concert of Scripps faculty, students and outside Filipino guest artists, awarded Certificate of Recognition by California State Senate
  • 2014: Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Service, Scripps College
  • 2014: NEH Summer Scholar, "Art, Architecture and Devotional Interaction in Medieval England", York, UK
  • 2013: Featured in an interview for PBS special: Healed: Music, Medicine and Life with MS http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/51335/Healed--Music--Medicine-and-Life-with-MS
  • 2012-2013: American Council on Education Fellow, ACE Council of Fellows Fund for the Future grant/Fidelity Investments Leadership Development institutional grant
  • 2012: NEH Teaching Development Fellow, “Bridging Cultures”
  • 2012, 2010, 2000, 1996: Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Teaching, Scripps College
  • 2012-2017: Fulbright Specialist Program roster in American Studies, Council for International Exchange of Scholars, US State Department
  • 2011: Consulting scholar, Yale-NUS (National University of Singapore) College curriculum planning, by invitation from President Richard Levin
  • 2010: Faculty initiator and co-host for Fulbright Visiting Scholar-in-Residence in Music and Italian Studies at Scripps College, Dr. Roberto Andreoni
  • 2009, 2006, 2004, 1999: Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Research, Creative Work and/or Performance, Scripps College
  • 2008: Fulbright Fellowship, American Studies and Music, Eotvos Llorand University, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2006: Mellon Foundation Local Initiatives Grant, Music Faculty College, Claremont Colleges
  • 2003: Mellon Foundation Odyssey Grant, Scripps and Harvey Mudd Colleges
Recent Professional Creative/Performance Activities
  • 2024: Senior cultural research consultant for Inaugural LA Chinatown Hungry Ghost Festival, Micah Huang California Arts Council Creative Corps Artist Fellow in collaboration with East Wind Foundation
  • 2024: Co-host, Co-Benefits of Human Well-being and Planetary Health” 17th International Forum on Ecological Civilization | 6th International Youth Forum on Ecological Civilization, sponsored by Center for Process Studies
  • 2024: Co-host and co-organizer of O’Brien Visiting Professor residency in Native American Studies/Indigenous Studies, Javier Ramirez, Gabrielino-Shoshone tribal council leader: guest lecture “Indigeneity and intercultural experiences in the Abya Yala” with Prof. Claudia Arteaga
  • 2023: co-curated Denison library exhibition “Remembering the Caretakers of the Land; Materials on Southern Californian and Southwest Native American Peoples” with Jennifer Martinez Wormser, Director of Denison Library
  • 2022: Artist residency by invitation from La Macina di San Cresci, in the historic complex of the Pieve di San Cresci, X sec. the oldest in the Chianti area, Tuscany, IT, composition retreat
  • 2022: Envirolab Asia Class Lab Maui trip to explore Chinese immigrant history in the context of environmental change (sugar plantations, ranches, pineapple plantations, mass tourism).
  • 2020: Performances and masterclasses, University of Belize: The Academic Minute Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/audio/2021/02/01/tradition-and-environmentalism-bali
  • 2018: Commune di Pisciotta, Cilento Coast (Italy), Citta di Siracusa (Sicily
  • 2017: Performances and masterclasses, Ningxia University, Yinchuan; Baotou Teacher’s College, Mongolia; Xiamen University PRC
  • 2017: Performances, lectures and masterclasses, University of Otago, Dunedin; Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
  • 2017: Performance, masterclass and lecture, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • 2016: Performances and lectures, Ningxia University, Yinchuan; University of Inner Mongolia, Baotou; Xiamen University, PRC
  • 2016: Performance and lectures, University of Crete; University of Makedonia; Greek Society of Music Educators; Ionian University, Crete and Greece
  • 2015: Solo performances and lectures, Universidade de São Paulo, USP; Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ, Brazil
  • 2015: Recitals and lectures, Hunan Women’s University, Changsha; Xiamen University, PRC
  • 2015: Solo and duo performances, lectures, IITGN Gandhinagar, India
  • 2015: Solo recital and lecture presentation, Yale-NUS, Singapore
  • 2014: Duo recital and lecture presentation, Universidad Veritas, Costa Rica
  • 2014: Solo and duo performances, masterclasses, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, MX
  • 2013: Solo recital and concerto performance, masterclasses, Xiamen University, PRC
  • 2012: Guest artist piano performance, 20th Anniversary of Hungarian Fulbright Commission by invitation of American Embassy, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2011: Solo piano recitals at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; IES Abroad Milan; Bari Conservatorio di Musica N. Piccini, Italy
  • 2010: Solo piano concerto and chamber music, lectures, Xiamen University, PRC
  • 2009: Solo piano recitals, Liszt Akadémia/Emlékmuzeum; Royal Palace at Gödöllö, Hungary

Presentations

  • 2022: featured guest interview, the Chinese History Podcast produced by Teacup Media, Episode 297, “Austro-German Jewish Refugee Musicians in Wartime Shanghai”
  • 2021: Narrator and background researcher for “Blood on Gold Mountain” – a story from the 1871 LA Chinatown massacre podcast, ranked #23 nationally in USA in History category, Apple Podcasts
  • 2021: lecture, “Indian Women Making History in Mauritius,” Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre (ICC) &  Ameena Gafoor Institute (AGI), Trinidad & Tobago 
            https://www.facebook.com/indocaribbeanculturalcentre/videos/491883078533142/
  • 2019: Invited to deliver paper at the 2020 Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations at University of Milan IT
  • 2018: Guest lecturer, “Jazzlines: Music, Poetry and the visual arts”; “Examining the Black American Dream”; “Paintings of the Harlem Rennaisance”, University of Essex, UK
  • 2017: Public lectures, “The Soul of Blues: Jazz through Rock ‘n’ Roll”; “The Musical Art of Billie Holiday”, University of Otago, Dunedin / Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
  • 2017: Public lecture, “American Piano Music from Gottschalk through Ives”, University of Cape Town, South Africa
  • 2016: Public lectures, “Jazz Poetry and Music”; “Survey of USA Piano Music: Heinrich, Beach, MacDowell, Gershwin, Copland, Barber Bernstein”, University of Crete / University of Makedonia / Greek Society of Music Educators / Ionian University, Greece
  • 2016: Public Lecture presentations, “Jazz Beginnings: New Orleans and Beyond”; “Survey of  American Art Music”, University of Coimbra, Portugal
  • 2015: Lecture, “Popular Influences in American Art Music”, Yale-NUS, Singapore
  • 2015: Public Lecture presentations, “The Black American Dream: Memories of the Harlem Renaissance” and “Jazzlines: Blues Poetry by Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown”,  University of São Paulo, Brazil
  • 2014: Lecture, “Survey of USA Chamber music”, Universidad Veritas, Costa Rica
  • 2013: Public lecture presentation, “Music of the Americas (Art Music of the Western Hemisphere)”, Veritas University and University of Costa Rica
  • 2013: Lecture presentation, “Chamber Music of the USA: Piano Trios by Beach, Ives, Bernstein, Zwilich and Schoenfield”, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, MX
  • 2011: Lecture Recital, “American Piano Music: from Gottschalk to Carter”, IES Milan and Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
  • 2009: Lecture recital, “American Perspectives on the Piano Music of Ferenc Liszt”, Liszt Akadémia/Emlékmuzeum, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2008: Paper, From Gottschalk to Gershwin: Jazz Inflections, Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Veszprém Castle, Hungary
  • 2008: Lecture, "Jazzlines: Music and Poetry" at Amerikai Esték, Eötvös Llorand University, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2004: Lecture recital, “American Music in Black and White: Race in American Art Music”, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy