Jen Shyu sings and performs on rare stringed instruments – Taiwanese moon lute, Korean gayageum, and Japanese biwa – offering a solo movement from her multilingual ritual opera called {Fertile Land, Fertile Body}. Based on interviews with environmental scientists, doctors, and women who struggle(d) with fertility, she uses ancient and original music and dance to express how barrenness in earth and body are intertwined.

Jen Shyu is currently a fellow at the American Academy in Rome.

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The event will take place in the foyer.
Free admission until capacity is reached.

Jen Shyu was born in Peoria, Illinois, to an East Timorese mother and a Taiwanese father who had both immigrated to the United States. Winner of numerous awards — including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, the USA Fellowship, the title of Doris Duke Artist, and a Fulbright scholarship — she is a singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and dancer. She’s performed her music at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and speaks 11 languages. Her current instruments include piano, violin, Taiwanese moon lute, Chinese er hu, Japanese biwa, and Korean gayageum. She’s performed with/sung the music of such pioneers as Sumi Tonooka, Terri Lyne Carrington, Nicole Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Vijay Iyer, Kenny Barron, and Bill Frisell. She’s produced eight albums and a single as a leader, landing on many best-of lists (New York Times, Nation, NPR). “When I Have Power” from her latest solo show Zero Grasses commissioned by John Zorn and album Zero Grasses: Ritual for the Losses made NPR’s “Best Songs of 2021.” Jen is Co-Founder/President/CEO of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) and a Steinway Artist.