Biography

The butterfly effect. Chance encounters. Casual conversations spark small decisions that open up new paths.

Summer 2014. A vacation memento launches a free-wheeling online conversation. A friend mentions a poem, which inspires a melody: this is the birth of a composer.

Edna Yeh is a composer, conductor, and singer based in Oakland, California. Her choral music spans both traditional classical styles and modern experimental works. She is a 2021 winner of the HerVoice competition sponsored by Chicago a cappella and the Kansas City Chorale, and is an active composer in the Project:Encore catalog. Recent commissions include works for Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble and Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus.

Spring 1985. An orchestra geek sings in the shower. A friend suggests auditioning for the university's women's chorus: this is the genesis of a choral conductor.

One of Edna's greatest passions is music for women’s chorus. She is the founder and artistic director of Vox Alta, a collaborative chamber ensemble for sopranos and altos. Edna also serves as assistant conductor of Sacred & Profane Chamber Chorus and music director of The Dulcet Four. She founded and formerly directed Concentus Women’s Chorus (Rochester, New York) and Pacific Women’s Chorus (San Diego, California), and was a guest conductor for Voci Women's Vocal Ensemble (Oakland, California).

She was born in Ellensburg, Washington, where she received her early musical training in piano and violin. Edna was first introduced to choral music as an undergraduate at Harvard University, and eventually earned her Master of Music (Music Theory) from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied music theory with Douglass Green, choral conducting with Morris Beachy and Craig Hella Johnson, and organ with Frank Speller.

Circa 1974. A young girl observes during music class that the melody moves up and down with the little black dots on the page. The music teacher suggests to the girl's parents that she should start piano lessons: this is the beginning of a life filled with music.