WANG Chenwei is the Composer-in-Residence of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, adjunct faculty at the National Institute of Education (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, as well as a council member of the Singapore Chinese Music Federation. As the Head of Research and Education at The TENG Company, he is the main co-author of The TENG Guide to the Chinese Orchestra (2019), a 624-page book on instrumentation and orchestration.
After graduating from Raffles Institution’s Gifted Education Programme with seven academic awards, Chenwei obtained his Magister Artium (five-year Master of Arts) with distinction and an Honorary Award (Würdigungspreis) from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he studied composition and audio engineering under a scholarship from Singapore’s Media Development Authority.
Chenwei’s compositions have been performed in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Malaysia, Austria, Germany, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. His notable commissions include the Erhu concerto set piece Charms of Taipei for the Taipei Chinese Instrumental Competition, Postcards from Macao for the Macao Government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau, 38 works for the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO), four Singapore Youth Festival set pieces for Singapore’s Ministry of Education, and four National Piano and Violin Competition set pieces for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). The SSO also performed his symphonic compositions at two National Day Concerts. In 2023, the SCO presented For Our Dreams: Wang Chenwei’s Composition Showcase, a concert dedicated to his works, while the Taipei Chinese Orchestra premiered his transcription of The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky.
At age 17, Chenwei composed The Sisters’ Islands, a symphonic poem which won the Singapore Composer Award at the 2006 Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition. Chenwei’s Confluence was broadcast on Chinese Music Banquet (Guangdong TV, 2019), and SCO’s video of this piece was shared by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on his Facebook page and at the National Day Rally 2022. Additionally, Chenwei’s compositions have been the subject of journal articles and theses at tertiary institutions in Mainland China, Taiwan, Macao, Singapore, and the UK.
Chenwei has adjudicated Singapore’s National Chinese Music Competition, the Singapore Youth Festival Arts Presentation, the Taipei Chinese Instrumental Competition, and the Nanyang International Music Competition. He has also been an examiner for the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
Chenwei’s efforts in composing, conducting, playing 12 musical instruments and writing in 12 languages were featured in the 2009 Singaporean TV documentary Extraordinary People. He received the Young Outstanding Singaporeans award from Junior Chamber International in 2011 and the Top Local Classical Music award from the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (COMPASS) in 2022 and 2023.