Composer, writer, poet, flutist, and pianist Jenny Xiong seeks beauty in the ephemeral. Captivated by the relationship between sound and silence, bloom and decay, color and space, death and memory, Jenny creates art to explore the evanescence of life and the seasons and draws especial inspiration from its portrayal in Asian art, literature, and video games. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music with a concentration in Composition at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studies composition with Ken Ueno, Carmine-Emanuele Cella, Myra Melford, and Edmund Campion, takes lessons with flutist Stacey Pelinka, and plays flute in the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra.

 

A native of Bothell, Washington, Jenny has been playing the flute for thirteen years and the piano for eighteen. She completed her undergraduate education at Stanford University, where she received a B.A. with Distinction in Music with Departmental Honors, with a concentration in Composition, and English with Departmental Honors, with an emphasis in Creative Writing. During her time at Stanford University, Jenny studied composition with François Rose and Erik Ulman, flute with Alexandra Hawley, and piano with Laura Dahl. She played flute in the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Philharmonia, and Stanford Summer Symphony and won Stanford University’s 2024 Marie Louise Rosenberg Honors Award for Outstanding Honors Thesis Writing, 2023 Friends of Music Undergraduate Composition Award, 2023 Concerto Competition, and 2021 and 2022 Humanities and Sciences Undergraduate Prize in Music.

 

Jenny has conducted research on Chinese and Japanese art as a recipient of the University of California, Berkeley’s 2026 David N. Keightley Fellowship and 2025 Mikumo Student Support Fund for Research in Japan as well as Stanford University’s 2023 Major Grant, 2022 Chappell Lougee Scholarship, and 2022 Humanities Research Intensive Fellowship. Other awards of hers include the University of California, Berkeley’s 2026 Roselyn Schneider De Lorenzo Prize in Music Composition and 2024 Berkeley Fellowship, Stanford University’s 2023 Arts + Justice Student Grant, and First Prize of the 2025 Oriens Composition Competition. Jenny’s compositions have been performed in Seattle, Boston, Stanford, Kyoto, Vienna, Berkeley, Davis, and Houston.