Pei-lun Vicky Chang (1966- ) 
 

Pei-lun Vicky Chang was born in Taiwan in 1966. She fell in love with the organ when the church she attended during college recruited her to play their new pipe organ. After completing a BM in piano at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taipei, Taiwan, she moved to the US to study the organ. She earned an MM in organ at the Manhattan School of Music and a DMA in organ performance at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati. 

Chang is the music director at St. Johns Evangelical Lutheran Church and of the Festival Chorus in Lancaster, New York. She has performed extensively as a recitalist; her first solo recital in Beijing was broadcast across China. She also accompanies orchestras and chamber groups, including the Empire Brass Quintet. 

In 2004, she released a book and performance CD, The Organ in Taiwan and Its Influence. In 2006, Wayne Leupold published her Suite for Organ (based on Taiwanese Folk Songs) containing “Cloudy Sky,” “Raining Night’s Flower,” “Bird,” and “Train.” According to the notes in Leupold’s edition, Chang began to compose in her teens.

She composed “Cloudy Sky” and “Raining Night’s Flower” for her Taipei National Concert Hall recital. She describes the three parts of “Cloudy Sky”: “First there is a short introduction; second, there is the introduction of the Taiwanese folk tune ‘Teanh-oh-oh’ with a new phrase arrangement at the beginning of the second section which uses an ostinato pattern in the pedal and a rhythmic pattern on the manual to accompany the melody; third is a development section.” Chang explains that “Raining Night’s Flower” is “based on the Taiwanese folk tune ‘Woo-yah-hwui.’ This piece can be divided into four parts. First a short introduction in which the melody is generated by the first and last phrases of the folk tune, and both are highly ornamented. Second, there is a simple hymnal style, in which the entire folk tune is placed on the soprano line. Third, there is development from measure 32-to 38, the descending triplet passages resembling the raindrops, while it modulates into a different key. At the end, it is a trio in canon with a little coda.’”

You can listen to more of Chang’s pieces on her CD, Travel by Music---Organ Music Selections for All Age (2010), which is available on Amazon, YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify.  

To learn more about organs in Asia, explore Calvert Johnson’s East Asian Works for Harpsichord and Organ.  Chelsea Chen’s Taiwanese Suite and The Moon Lady are also beautiful pieces, welding Eastern and Western musical traditions.