Bio — Yixie Shen

YIXIE SHEN - COMPOSER

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^{"Yixie creates subtle sound worlds and is not afraid to take risks in structure and instrumentation. She has a beautiful sense of timbre and colour.

The way she weaves a narrative is refined and gripping.

Her music stays with you."

— The Jury of the Gaudeamus Award 2024}

^{„Sie zeichnet in reizvoll instrumentierten Klangschauern aggressiver und schmeichelnder Art ein zweischichtiges Hörbild starker Gegensätze.“
— Christian Strehk, Kieler Nachrichten, 12.01.2026}

^{„Kaleidoskopartig gehen sie ineinander über, sodass es trotz der räumlichen Trennung der Klangereignisse zuweilen unmöglich wird, ihre Herkunft auszumachen.
… Die Instrumentierung [vermag] mit schroffen Kontrasten und blockartigen Strukturen zu überraschen.“
— Laurenz Entekhabi, Positionen, Heft 142}

Yixie Shen (b. 1993, CHN) is a composer based in Hamburg, Germany. She is the recipient of the Gaudeamus Award (2024), among other prizes and honors.

Her music has been presented by orchestras and ensembles across Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Austria, South Africa, China, and the United States. Performances include those by State Opera Hamburg, Symphoniker Hamburg, Kieler Philharmoniker, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, junge norddeutsche philharmonie, as well as by leading contemporary ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Ascolta, Ensemble KNM Berlin, Ensemble L’ART POUR L’ART, Ensemble LUX:NM, Ensemble Resonanz, collective lovemusic, IEMA Ensemble, New European Ensemble, Studio Dan, Trio Catch and Yarn/Wire.

Her works have been featured at major venues and festivals, among them the Elbphilharmonie, the State Opera Hamburg (stabile), the cresc… Biennial, Gaudeamus Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz, Heinrich Schütz Music Festival, Musik 21 Festival, and blurred edges. Broadcasts of her works have been aired by NDR, WDR, SWR, MDR, BR, HR, SR (Germany), ORF (Austria), NPO (Netherlands), and additional international broadcasters.

Her musical path began under the guidance of her father, a pianist and devoted music educator. She received a Bachelor's degree in Composition under the mentorship of Prof. He Xuntian. In 2018, she moved to Germany to study with Prof. Fredrik Schwenk at the University of Music and Theatre Hamburg, where she completed both her Master’s degree and Konzertexamen with distinction.

Artistic Statement

Yixie Shen perceives music as a generative form of consciousness - a morphogenetic way of thinking. In a contemporary society shaped by production and efficiency, her practice turns toward another logic, rooted in the organic relations among becoming, perception, and awareness. Inspired by nature’s self-organizing order, her music traces an ecology of listening. For her, composition unfolds as constant listening and negotiation among imagination, material, and time. She holds open the interfaces of tension, letting their fragile balances be heard and felt.

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