For AANHPI Heritage Month in May, here are 10 composers to celebrate

What today is known as “classical music” emerged in Europe centuries ago, but its influence and impact has spread worldwide with composers from virtually every ethnic origin bringing their own distinctive voice to the genre.

The U.S. classical music world marks Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May with a salute to the dozens of composers from these regions who have enriched the field with their multifaceted creations.

In January, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed one of the most prominent pieces of music composed in recent decades by an Asian-American composer — the Academy Award-winning score for the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), alongside a screening of the movie directed by Ang Lee. The score was composed by Tan Dun, 67, a Chinese-born American whose major works include Water Passion After St. Matthew (2000), written to mark the 250th anniversary of the death of J.S. Bach.

Joe Hisaishi, another significant composer, is not American and does not, strictly speaking, fit into the parameters of this monthlong celebration, but the Japanese-born pianist and conductor brought an important Asian influence to his four sold-out concerts in 2024 with the CSO. Best known for his more than 100 film scores, especially those created for the popular works of director Hayao Miyazaki, Hisaishi will return to the CSO on April 23-26, 2026, to lead an encore program of his symphonic and film music.

Here’s a look at 10 other notable Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander composers:

Andy Akiho (born 1979 in the United States of Japanese descent)

Factoid: Akiho discovered the steel drums when he was an undergraduate at the University of South Carolina and took several trips to Trinidad to learn the instrument and play with local bands.

Notable works: Percussion concerto (2019); in that space, at that time, (2023) for orchestra, nominated for a 2024 Grammy Award, and Sculptures (2023) for orchestra and sculptures.

Nilo Alcala (born in the Philippines, 1978)

Factoid: He is the first Philippine-born composer to receive a residency award at the Copland House in the Hudson River Valley, where the famed American composer lived and worked during the last 30 years of his life.

Notable works: Speak to Me My Love/You Are the Evening Cloud (2007) for soprano, tenor and orchestra; Mangá Pakalagián (Ceremonies) (2015) for chorus, commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and The Magi’s Journey (2018) for orchestra.

Kenji Bunch (born 1973 in the United States of Japanese descent)

Factoid: A violist as well as a composer, Bunch was a founding member of the influential Flux Quartet (1996-2002) and bluegrass band Citigrass (1998-2013).

Notable works: The Snow Queen, a ballet (2016); the still small voice (2020) for string octet, and Lost Freedom: A Memory (2021), a collaboration with actor/activist George Takei, for chamber ensemble and narrator.

Chen Yi (born in China, 1953)

Factoid: Chen was the first woman to receive a master’s degree in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Notable works: Spring Dreams (1997) for chorus, Percussion Concerto (1998) and Fire for 12 players (2019), commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.

Paul Chihara (born 1938 in the United States of Japanese descent)

Factoid: As a child during World War II, he spent three years with his family imprisoned at a camp in Minidoka, Idaho, after President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the internment of 110,000 to 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during WWII.

Notable works: The Tempest (1980), a ballet; the score of the film Crossing Delancey (1988), and Shogun: The Musical (1990).

Reena Esmail (born in Chicago, 1983, of Indian and Pakistani descent)

Factoid: Esmail spent 2011-12 on a Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship in New Delhi, India, studying and performing Hindustani classical music.

Notable works: Black Iris (2018) for orchestra, commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta; Concerto for Hindustani Violin and Orchestra (2022), and Malhaar: A Requiem for Water (2023) for chorus, Hindustani vocalist, tabla and percussion.

Vijay Iyer (born 1971 in the United States of Indian descent)

Factoid: Voted jazz artist of the year four times in DownBeat magazine’s annual critics’ poll, Iyer also has worked with such classical artists violinist Jennifer Koh and the Brentano Quartet and the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Notable works: The string quartet Mozart Effects (2011); Zany, Cute, Interesting (2016) for solo violin, and Crisis Modes (2019) for strings and percussion.

Leilehua Lanzilotti (born 1983 in the United States, of Kānaka Maoli, i.e., Native Hawaiian, descent)

Factoid: Lanzilotti, who is also an instrumental soloist, premiered Dai Fujikura’s viola concerto, Wayfinder, during the 2022 Born Creative Festival in Tokyo.

Notable works: with eyes the color of time (2020) for string orchestra, a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2022; the sky in our hands, our hands in the sky (2023), a video installation, and of light and stone (2025) for orchestra.

Bright Sheng (born in China, 1955)

Factoid: The two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2001. He left China in 1982 and was composer-in-residence for Lyric Opera of Chicago during 1989-1992.

Notable works: H’un: In Memoriam, 1966-76 (1988) for orchestra, Three Songs for Pipa and Cello (1999), commissioned by the White House, and the opera Dream of the Red Chamber (2016).

Zhou Tian (born in China, 1981)

Factoid: He came to the United States in his late teens to study at the Curtis Institute, Juilliard and the University of Southern California. His Concerto for Orchestra (2016) was nominated in 2018 for a Grammy Award in the category of best contemporary classical composition, the first time a Chinese-born composer had received that honor. He is now a professor of composition at Michigan State University.

Other notable works: Sinfonia for wind ensemble (2022), Metropolis for orchestra (2022) and Double Concerto for violin, viola and chamber orchestra (2024).