• Ann WOO, Executive Director •

• Yong YAO, Artistic Director ..• ..Phil YOUNG, Music Director •

Ms. Woo, dancer and producer, has long been instrumental in introducing Chinese dance to the local communities. Her productions have been presented regularly in major theatres such as Herbst Theatre, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, Flint Center, and San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.

Ms. Woo served as Executive Director of the Chinese Folk Dance Association of San Francisco for ten years. She co-founded the Asian Heritage Couancil in the South Bay in 1984 and Chinese Performing Artists of America in 1991. Drawing upon her vast experiences both in high-tech industry and performing arts production, Ms. Woo initiated CPAA’s ties to the local communities. Under Ms. Woo’s management, CPAA has grown significantly in the past ten years and served over 400,000 in audience.

Ms. Woo currently serves as the Chair of the Arts and Culture Committee of the Cupertino-Hsinchu Sister Cities Association. For her outstanding services to the community, she was honored as a “Citizen of Achievement” in February, 1999, by the Sunnyvale-Cupertino Branch of the American Association of University Women. She is recently awarded the “2002 Women’s Achievement Award in Art” by Women’s Fund.

Executive Director Ann WOO

Mr. Yao is an accomplished dancer, choreographer and instructor from Beijing. He was twice awarded the “Best Dancer” title. Upon graduation from China’s most prestigious dance institution—Beijing Dance Adacemy* in 1984, he joined the faculty of the Academy as lecturer and choreographer. His work includes modern, classical and regional folk styles. These works garnered many awards in dance competitions, among them The Prince and the Goddess is featured in CPAA's 2003 Chinese Performing Arts Festival.

Mr. Yao joined CPAA as Artistic Director at the company’s founding. In 1992, Mr. Yao’s choreographic work for the tremendously popular TheatreWorks production of M. Butterfly won high acclaims. He was awarded a choreography fellowship by the Arts Council of Santa Clara County in 1993. He has also taught a number of master classes on Chinese dance at De Anza College and San Jose Dance Theatre. In 1994, Mr. Yao’s Yellow River Suite won the Gold Award when it was voted one of the “Masterpieces of the 20th Century” by six authoritative arts organizations, with the approval of the Ministry of Culture of China.

Mr. Yao has created for CPAA a body of acclaimed and diverse works such as Nocturne of the Muses, Sorrow of the Great Wall, Ah Bing, Dream of Shangri-la and CPAA’s signature production Dragon2000™, which was staged in the year 2000, the year of the Dragon. For CPAA’s Tenth Anniversary in 2001, Mr. Yao created the energizing Pageant of Drums, which breaks new ground in the unity of dance and drumming. Mr. Yao is listed in Who’s Who of Contemporary China.

Mr. Yao is currently working on the choreography of a new 4-act dance drama Middle Kingdom—Ancient China, a collaboration of CPAA and Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley (BSJSV), due to premiere in February, 2005.

* Beijing Dance Academy -- The most prestigious performing arts organization in China and the dance institute known as “the cradle of China’s dance artists.” The Academy is a college level institution of higher education, offering majors including dance performance, dance education (history and instruction) as well as production. It also has an adjunct dance school that has been offering 5-year formal dance training since the 1950s

Mr Yao heads YaoYong Dance, CPAA's dance academy in San Jose.

Artistic Director Yong YAO
received a Gold Award in China for his Yellow River! dance suite, which was voted as one of the “Masterpieces of the 20th Century."

Mr. Yao founded YaoYong Dance in

Phil Young studied composition with Luo Zhongrong, one of the leading composers in China, and became a staff composer for the Beijing Symphony. Among the variety of music he wrote, his ballet music Fire Dance, composed for Jia Zuoguang, a renowned choreographer, won in China’s national competition.  
 
After immigrating to the U.S. in 1981, he studied with Elinor Armer at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and received high academic award. His symphonic piece Fantasy for Orchestra won the Conservatory Competition in 1986 and was chosen for the Spring Concert at Herbst Theater in San Francisco, which was broadcasted live by the KQED radio station. The piece was later included in the Thuringer Symphony’s 2001 concert season in Germany and well received by both the audience and the orchestra.
 
Mr. Young is currently the music director of the Chinese Performing Artists of America, his composition for Dragon 2000™ has won overwhelming receptions. His latest composition From the East which is included in this concert, has received enthusiastic review from the San Francisco Classical Voice.

Phil resides in San Jose and has been writing music for the local performing groups in varies forms including orchestral, chamber, electronic, chorus and film. His music has been performed internationally by Beijing Symphony in China, Tuhringer Symphony in Germany, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Ballet San Jose Orchestra, San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra and South Bay Chamber Orchestra.

His most recent project is a music composition for a 4-act dance drama, Middle Kingdom—Ancient China, a collaboration of CPAA and Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley. The dance drama will world premiere in February 2005.

Music Director Phil YOUNG