SIQI HUANG

Siqi (Cathy) Huang is a Chinese composer, vocalist, choreographer, songwriter, and creative performer whose artistic practice moves across composition, sound art, and interdisciplinary performance. With a strong foundation in orchestral and large-ensemble writing, she approaches composition as a space where different musical languages, artistic disciplines, and modes of performance can meet. Her work spans classical and orchestral music, film scoring, minimalism, pop, and jazz, with her role shifting between composer, vocalist, songwriter, and performer depending on the nature of each project. As a vocalist, she is particularly interested in the expressive possibilities of the human voice, exploring extended vocal techniques, breath, noise, unconventional singing, and other approaches when they serve the musical and dramatic needs of a work. Her interdisciplinary projects also incorporate movement, dance, and performance art, and she frequently collaborates with electronic artists to bring acoustic instruments and voices into dialogue with electronic sound and technology. Rather than being defined by a single medium or genre, her practice is shaped by the interaction between composition, voice, body, collaboration, and performance.

Siqi’s recent compositional work focuses on exploring chamber ensembles with unconventional instrumentation, particularly the integration of rock-band instruments with classical instruments and modern musical languages. Drawing on her background in orchestral and large-ensemble writing, she is interested in how instruments associated with different musical traditions can coexist within a single ensemble, creating new relationships between orchestral color, amplified sound, rhythm, and texture. Alongside this work, she is expanding her practice into film scoring and music for visual media, using Logic Pro as a primary environment for composing, arranging, producing, and realizing her scores. Through these different projects, she continues to explore the space between concert music, popular music, and collaborative multimedia work, while developing a compositional language that can move between the concert stage, studio, and visual media. She is currently studying Composition at the Peabody Conservatory, where she studies with Joel Puckett, Elijah Daniel Smith, and Oscar Bettison.

Beyond her work as a composer, Siqi is also an experienced vocalist, songwriter, and live performer, with a vocal practice rooted in jazz, pop, and classical traditions. Influenced by the improvisational freedom and expressive phrasing of Ella Fitzgerald, as well as the powerful vocal style and songwriting of Chinese singer-songwriter G.E.M., she has developed a voice characterized by power, emotional depth, and a distinctive storytelling quality. To further expand her vocal practice, Siqi is also pursuing a minor in Voice at Peabody, where classical vocal training has strengthened her technique and broadened her understanding of vocal color, range, and expression. Her experience across classical, jazz, and popular vocal traditions allows her to move confidently between different styles while also shaping the way she approaches composition, songwriting, and collaboration with other musicians.

For Siqi, vocal performance and composition are not separate practices, but two disciplines that continually inform and strengthen one another. Her experience as a performer deepens her understanding of musical expression and communication, while her perspective as a composer shapes the way she interprets, collaborates, and performs.