William Jae is a composer and pianist whose work spans concert music and film scores. A Los-Angeles native, his music seeks to explore his personal upbringing in Koreatown and combine it with his fascination in psychology, storytelling, nature as well as the arts and sciences. His music is inspired from a broad array of styles such as classical music, jazz, hip hop, popular music and non-Western music. From 2018 to 2020, he was the recipient of the Herbert Zipper Scholarship, which allowed him to study music tuition-free at the Colburn School of Music. From 2019 to 2020, he was a fellow at the Composer Fellowship Program where he was mentored by renowned composers such as Andrew Norman, Sarah Gibson, and Thomas Kotcheff. During his time as a fellow, William premiered his first string trio, Alabaster Wool, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. During the pandemic, William became the recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists Award and made his From the Top debut in Blanket Fort 2. In that same year, he was also a semi-finalist in the 2020 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award. In 2021, William scored his first independent feature film in Rochester, which has received several accolades at various film festivals. William has had his works performed by notable ensembles such as the Lyris Quartet, OSSIA, Bergamot Quartet, Norfolk New Music Ensemble, Salastina and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. In 2024, He was the composer-in-residence at Millay Arts where he has worked on several concert pieces for future announcements. Recently, William won first prize for the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester Composition Competition for Fragile Dreams and was programmed in their 2024/2025 season. William is a graduate at the Eastman School of Music and University of Rochester where he earned a BM in Music Composition and a BA in Psychology. He is also the former founder and artistic director of a student-run chamber orchestra at Eastman. Currently, William is a mentee at Grammy U, a mentorship program for young, rising artists and will be heading to the Shepherd School of Music at Rice to pursue a master’s degree in music composition.
