Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violin/viola) has created works ranging from jazz, classical, “new” and world music.

Stories Before Within (Innova Records), the second release of his quartet EDGE, was included in the Top Ten Recordings of 2008 by Coda Magazine.All About Jazz selected their first CD, EDGE (Asian Improv Records), as one of the Top Ten CDs of 2006.Both CDs charted near the top of the CMJ (USA) and EARSHOT(Canada) college radio charts. Their third CD is currently in production. EDGE has performed at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Discover Jazz Festival (VT), Edgefest (MI), Vision Festival (NYC), An die Musik(Baltimore), Transparent Productions (Washington, D.C.), Brooklyn College and many other venues. Commitment, The Complete Recordings, 1981-1983, from a collective quartet that was Mr. Hwang’s first band, has been selected as the “2010 Reissued Recording of the Year” by All About Jazz / New York. His octet Burning Bridge, commissioned by ChamberMusic America / New Jazz Works, recently premiered at the 2010 Chicago World Music Festival. In 2007, Euonymus Records released Local Lingo, Mr. Hwang’s duets with Sang Won Park (kayagum, ajeng, voice). In 2005, New World Records released Mr. Hwang’s chamber opera The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown, which was named one of the “Top Ten Opera Recordings of 2005 by Opera News. Mr. Hwang’s long-standing ensemble, The Far East Side Band (1990-2004) featuring taiko, kayagum, tuba and his violin,released two CDs, Urban Archaeology (1996, Victo Records) and Caverns (1994, New World Records). The Far East Side Band performed at the Beijing International Jazz Festival, Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum, Freer Gallery, Vision Festival, World Music Institute (NYC), Jazz Spektakel Wuppertal (Germany), duMaurier Ltd. International Jazz Festival (Vancouver), International Festival Musique Actuelle (Victoriaville), and many other stages. Mr. Hwang also recorded with his trio, Unfolding Stone (1990, Sound Aspects). Mr. Hwang’s composition Flight of Whispers, commissioned and performed by Music for Homemade Instrumentscan be heard on eXchange: China (1999, CRI), a compilation CD of Chinese American composers.

Mr. Hwang has also received support from US Artists International, the American Music Center, Meet the Composer/ New Residencies, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, New York Community Trust, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Greenwall Foundation, and the Puffin Foundation. As violinist, Mr. Hwang has worked with Anthony Braxton, Pauline Oliveros, Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, Reggie Workman, Vladamir Tarasov, Tatsu Aoki, Frances Wong, William Parker, Sirone, Dr. Makanda Ken MacIntyre, and many others.

Jason Kao Hwang has been artist–in-residence at the University of Southern Connecticut, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, and the Asia Society. Mr. Hwang has lectured at Westminster, Brooklyn, and Queens College. Mr. Hwang taught Asian American Music, a course he originated for the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. With Young Audiences/New York, Mr. Hwang created a grade school course on composition and improvisation that provided cross-curriculum tools.He later led a teacher’s workshop for Midori and Friends based upon his course.