Wan Heo

Wan Heo is a Korean-born composer based in Chicago. Her works have been performed internationally in South Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Spain, and throughout the United States. Her percussion solo Unveiled Future is published by Alfonce Production.

Wan’s music has been commissioned and featured by Darmstädter Ferienkurse, SEAMUS, Yarn/Wire, Unheard-of Ensemble, line upon line, New Music on the Point, highSCORE Festival, and the Valencia International Performance Academy (VIPA), among others. She received an Honorable Mention for the Christine Clark/Theodore Front Prize in the IAWM New Music Search.

Her doctoral dissertation explores the vulnerability of South Korea’s sonic environments through field recordings made at Buddhist mountain monasteries. This research has been supported by two research awards from Northwestern University: the Graduate Research Grant and the Buffett Institute’s International Dissertation Research Travel Grant. Works from this project have been presented at NYCEMF, the Composition in Asia Conference, the Society of Composers National Conference, the North American Saxophone Alliance Regional Conference, the National Student Electronic Music Event (NSEME), and the University of Miami’s Composition Colloquium.

Wan is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University. She holds a B.M. in Composition from Ewha Womans University and an M.M. in Composition from Florida State University. She is currently ABD in the Ph.D. program in Composition and Music Technology at Northwestern University, where she works under the guidance of Alex Mincek, Stephan Moore, and Jay Alan Yim.