Dr. Sarana Chou
Artist Lecturer in Music Theory
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Bio
Composer Sarana Chou's music is known for its distinct expressiveness and intense musical language. The New York Times described her music as “modern and thorny”; The Birmingham News praised her as “a composer with a convincing point of view and the facility to get her ideas across.” Her recent commissions include “A Gift on Three Rivers” for solo piano in celebration of the Pittsburgh Piano Teachers Association's 90th anniversary. She is currently working on a new work for chamber music, scheduled to premiere at the 2027 Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association conference as the PMTA’s Commissioned Composer of the year.
Sarana Chou has been awarded numerous composition prizes since her student years, including the first prize - Leo Kaplan Award at the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards in 2002. Her music has been widely performed, most notably at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City, Taiwan National Theater in Taipei, and Akademie der Künste in Berlin, Germany.
Sarana Chou moved to the United States in 1998 from her native Taiwan to pursue composition studies. She received her B.M. from The Juilliard School, M.A from the University of Chicago, and D.M.A. from Eastman School of Music. Before coming to Carnegie Mellon, she taught composition and music theory at Samford University (Birmingham, Alabama) and West Virginia University (Morgantown,WV).