Justine F. Chen (born 1975)
Justine F. Chen was born in Brooklyn and began studying piano, violin, and composition at an early age. She attended Julliard where she received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin and composition, and a doctorate in composition.
Her website states: “Always fascinated by the expressive possibilities of dramatic forms, Taiwanese-American composer Justine F. Chen draws inspiration from animation, film, theater, classical Indian dance and music, ballet, and contemporary dance.” She has composed music for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestras, choruses, several short “pocket operas” that range in length from 5 to 25 minutes, and two full-length operas.
Justine Chen’s opera The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing (to a libretto by David Simpatico) will be premiered by the Chicago Opera Theater in March 2023. The composer and librettist call the opera “a historic-fantasia on Turing’s life.” They have written: “Our opera imagines the man inside the legend of Alan Turing: his unique perspective of the universe, his unabashed view of his homosexuality, and his impact on the future of civilization.”
Here is a too-short excerpt from a concert performance of the scene “Cave of Wonders,” featuring a moving duet between Alan Turing and his doomed childhood friend Christopher Morcom.