In her 2007 Goddard Lieberson Award citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, it states, "...In a seamless narrative, her beautiful music, always highly inventive and expressive, is immediately as appealing as it is demanding and memorable." Wire Magazine praises her CD Returning Souls as "deep musical intelligence." Her second award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Walter Hinrichsen Award in 2023, indicated, "...Her strong personal voice bridges the East and West with passion, energy, and dramatic expression. Her contribution to intercultural exchange is unmistakable."

Composer Shih-Hui Chen was born in Taiwan and has been living in the U.S. since 1982. Fascinated by the narratives that intersect identity, culture, and tradition, she seeks to bridge boundaries between music and society, between the music of different cultures, and between music and other art forms in her work.

This perspective informs both her creative works and community projects. Her recent cross-genre theatrical work, Fermentasia: Whispers in the Jar, explores the idea of food preservation as a means to unite people from various cultures worldwide. Her chamber opera, or/and, delves into questions of personal and cultural identity, while her shadow puppet viola concerto, sisila ila ila: saying goodbye, addresses the conservation of culture and the environment. Chen’s commitment to fostering global connections also led to her founding of 21C: Classical, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Asian Music, a performing arts festival that promotes intercultural exchange between Asia and the U.S. through lectures and performances.

To gain a more profound understanding of the music and cultures of her homeland, Chen spent two years studying indigenous and nanguan music in Taiwan on the Fulbright Senior Scholar Program, affiliated with the Academia Sinica, the Taiwan Institute, and the National Taiwan University. Her works in this area includeWithholding the Umbrella for Chinese orchestra, Returning Souls: Four Short Pieces on Three Formosan Amis Legends, and Echoes from Within: A Musical Response to Cy Twombly, a 45-minute site-specific work for sheng, double bass, and electronics in collaboration with composer Kurt Stallmann.

Shih-Hui Chen currently serves on the Performing Arts and Culture Committee at the Asia Society Texas Center and is on the faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. She has collaborated with ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Her work has received recognition from prestigious institutions, including the American Academy in Rome, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Harvard/Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Barlow Prize, the Fromm Foundation, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fulbright Scholar Program. The residencies she attended include the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Copland House, and Bogliasco Foundation.

Chen’s recent projects include A Stillness That Moves, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera for the Rothko Chapel; Birds Are Real: Ambush from Ten Directions, commissioned for the Shepherd School of Music’s 50th-anniversary celebration; BOUNCE!! for 13 players, commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition; Our Stories, Our Songs commissioned by Trio Phōs/New World Symphony BLUE (Build, Learn, Understand, Experiment) program; Where Water Fallscommissioned by KlangForum Heidelberg (Germany); Sitting on the Clouds commissioned by Houston Arts Alliance for the Formosa Quartet; and Mirror Lake, Wandering Sky by Dallas Voices of Change. Her music can be heard on Albany, New World, and Bridge Records.