Chee-Hwa Tan

Chee-Hwa Tan, composer and pianist-educator, is passionate about mentoring the next generation of musicians and supporters of the Arts. She has served as the Head of Piano Pedagogy at the University of Denver Lamont School of Music, and on the piano pedagogy faculties at the Oberlin Conservatory and Southern Methodist University. During her tenure at DU, she created the Lamont Piano Preparatory Program, a cutting-edge, 21st century teaching laboratory for the innovative teaching of group and private piano study for adults and children. As a composer, Chee-Hwa explores the tonal colors of the instrument while encouraging performers of all ages to connect at an emotional and intellectual level of understanding. Her landmark work, A Child’s Garden of Verses – a collection of tone-poem etudes for solo piano – has for decades empowered musicians young and old to discover their artistic voices through the synthesis of technique, literature, and sound.

Chee-Hwa’s solo piano music is published by Piano Safari; with selections included in the Repertoire and Study syllabi of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London, and the London College of Music. Her publishing company Dayung Sampan Music expands her philosophy of music making and artistry to other instrumental combinations at all levels. A native of Malaysia and a naturalized U.S. citizen, Chee-Hwa holds Masters’ degrees in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from the Southern Methodist University and a B.A. in Piano Performance and English from Oral Roberts University. Her teachers include Alfred Mouledous, Joaquin Achucarro, E. Gregory Nagode, and Joyce Bridgman.