Benjamin Kaing Yee-Paulson is an internationally recognized undergraduate composer currently living in New York City, and studying at New York University. He has been composing for nine years, ever since he started improvising on the piano and arranging film scores for his friends to play. He studied at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School for eight years; he was awarded both the Composition and Music Theory Department Award from the NEC Prep School. Previous composition instructors include Dr. Rodney Lister and Dr. Martin Amlin, chair of the composition department at Boston University; he currently studies with Dr. Justin Dello Joio. He has had composition master classes from renowned composers Michael Gandolfi, Lee Hyla, Malcolm Peyton, Nico Muhly, Sebastian Currier, William Bolcom, Jefferson Friedman, Narcis Bonet, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Ben is also a member of the New York Youth Symphony composition program, run by composers Kyle Blaha and Michael Ippolito, and is the only NYU composer in the program.

 

His very first composition, South of the World, made Ben a finalist in the national ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Competition, and has since been a national ASCAP finalist for a total six times. He has placed many times in other national and state composition competitions, including the Pikes Peak Young Composers Competition, Tribeca New Music Competition, and the Massachusetts Music Educator All-State Conference. Ben has had a number of commissions; some of them include writing an orchestra piece for the Contemporary Festival at New England Conservatory and, recently, a women’s choir at the Westminister Choir College. Several (five) of his orchestra pieces have been either read or played at the New England Conservatory. Many of Ben's compositions have also been premiered at NYU, through various musical programs like Mix Nouveau, First Stages, and the Percussion-Composer collaborative program.

 

Ben currently resides as a director for First Stages, two concerts dedicated to premiering new vocal music. Besides choir and orchestra, Ben has written for a diverse myriad of ensembles including solo voice, string trio, brass quintet, wind quintet, piano sextet, percussion ensemble, chamber orchestra, and piano; the latter is Ben’s primary instrument. Ben is a Boston University Tanglewood Institute Alumni and a European American Musical Alliance alumni, an intensive international composition program that takes place in Paris, France for the month of July. He attended in 2013 and 2014.

He looks forward to continuing to inspire joy in the hearts of his audience through his compositions, and making new friends along the way. Ben is incredibly happy to be following his passion and dream.