Based in Boston, MA
Website: youtube.com/@yuqin8796
“A large portion of my compositions have been inspired by research into history and stories of landscape, traveling in nature, and exploring the voices, memories, and contours of the land. Landscape and nature has endowed my works with richness of narratives, depth of emotions, and spiritual experiences. I have also recently been dedicated to integrating music and environmental studies to raise awareness of climate change and activism.”
Biography
Hayley Qin is a composer, vocalist, cellist based in Boston, whose work spans classical, improvisation, jazz, poetry, dance, historical research, and multimedia. Her music takes roots in contemporary social issues like racial and cultural history and narratives, environmental justice, mental-health as well as East Asian music and literature. Her most recent landscape music projects include Three Moods in New England (2024) (I. Shelburne Farm, Vermont; II, Memorial Chapel, Connecticut; III, Forest Hills Cemetery, Massachusetts), for seven wind instruments; At One Day I Will Return, for percussions, narrators, strings, and voices (2023) and Philadelphia Fall, for piano and symphony orchestra (2022).
Hayley writes for many occasions that seeks dialogues between music and different disciplines; explores psychology and psychological phenomenons and tendencies, music and well-being and mental health in community, poetry, literature, and cultures, forestry, plants, and environmental systems/justice, dance and body and societal interconnections, landscape and stories/intricate histories her works, collaborations, and commissions are usually played at historical sites/organizations, research centers, poetry/dance/art/culture festivals, environmental activism and educational events, museums, community centers, urban spaces, and natural sites.
Work Samples
At One Day I Will Return (2023) performed by Doyeon Kim, percussion; Agne Giedraityte, voice, percussion; Sofia Beiran, viola, percussion; Pitiki Aliakai, voice, narration, percussion; Jamie Eliot, voice, narration, percussion; Michele Zimmerman, violin; Philip Rawlinson, viola; Karl Henry, cello, percussion.
“This piece, with themes of time, faith, and determination, is a portrait of texture, rhythm, and contour. In three movements, the listener is introduced to the soundworld of chaos and wonders in nature, social turbulence and diverse traditions, and introspection of travelers. The first movement is a sound-map made of percussion and narrative. It is inspired by three travelers—botanist Joseph Rock, medical missionary Hubert Gordon Thompson (accompanied by Brig. Gen. George Pereira), and anthropologist Frederick R. Wulsin—whose footsteps covered southern and western China in 1923.”
Working Song (勞動歌) , Traditional Amis (arr. Hayley Yu Qin) for a cappella voices. Pitiki Aliakai, voice; Sarah Bernadette, voice; Haijie Du, voice; Aviana Gedler, voice; Hayley Yu Qin, voice; Rosario Rivas, voice; Changrong Yan, voice.
“This is a new arrangement for a cappella for a traditional song of the Amis people in Taiwan, Working Song (勞動歌). The Amis people live in the mountains in the East Rift Valley and Hualien County and the song is traditionally sung when people are working in the field or celebrating the harvest season.”