User:Fuzheado/Hsu draft

Hsu Tsang-Houei (September 6, 1929 - January 1, 2001) was a Taiwanese musician and music educator.

Hsu was born in Hemei Village, Changhua County, Taichung Prefecture, Taiwan in the period of Japanese occupation, and went to Japan to study at the age of 12, majoring in violin. He came back to Taiwan and studied at Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School in 1946 after war, and then studied at Taiwan Provincial Normal College (now National Taiwan Normal University) department of music, serving as a violinist at Taiwan Provincial Symphony Orchestra (now National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra) after graduating.

Hsu went to France to study at public expense in 1954, and attended the College of Frankfurt, after that he transferred to University of Paris (Université de Paris), majoring in composition and studying under André Jolivet. In 1959, he chose the poem “Yesterday Someone Came from the Sea” and composed it into a soprano solo piece, which was selected for the competition of the Italian Modern Music Society, and then began his composing career.

Hsu was back to Taiwan in 1959. Besides music composing, he also collected local music cultural works, for example, Taiwanese folk songs. Furthermore, Hsu used the way of Western composing methods to rewrite Traditional Chinese music, such as the Cantata "Song of Burial Flowers" written from A Dream of Red Mansions; as well as the opera from The Legend of the White Snake, and the Baijiachun Concerto which were well-known and well received.

In addition to composing music, Hsu formed many modern music groups, and devoted himself to the education of modern music and the preservation of folk music. He once teamed up with Deng Chang-Guo, Anna Azusa Fujita and Zhang Ji-Gao to found the "New Music in First Play" orchestra, introducing Western modern music performances. Other important music groups such as "Asian Composers League" also have his participation and contribution.