Encapsulating eclecticism with equal parts emotion and skill, award-winning composer and arranger Liz Huang has developed an extensive and engaging repertoire of original works, and consistently pushes the boundaries creatively.
As an introduction to the sound, the 2024 EP Hommage A Byron blends a delicate neo-classical set-up, with intimate, poetic vocals and enchanting melodies. When We Two Parted is a heartfelt classical-folk ode to romantic longing and connection, and both the performance and instrumentation rise up from gentle to impassioned, throughout this post-four-minute expression of love and heartbreak.
The project goes on to showcase the instrumental versatility of Huang’s approach quite beautifully. So We’ll Go No More a Roving employs an acoustic guitar, and something unexpectedly Eva Cassidy-esque in story and sentiment. The mildly theatrical melodies of the EP resound though, the emotions guiding us through a genuinely original tune and story that naturally soothes the soul.
Wrapping things up with all the more versatility and power – I Speak Not flips the script distinctly, highlighting the dramatic and powerful cinematic vastness of Liz Huang’s sound design, creating a sense of adventure and incoming drama that’s evocative and captivating. This work intensifies immensely, carving out a provocative and euphoric listening experience, which aptly gets the mind wandering. It’s a sensational closing track, and a fine gateway into the niche cinematic flow and unlimited creativity of the rest of Liz Huang’s catalogue.
Stylistically bringing together emotional orchestral writing and Asian pop and art-song influences, there’s a distinct sense of character and purpose to everything under the Liz Huang name. Whatever the mood or story, the composer achieves the right kind of energy and detail to represent it in the most compelling and interesting way.
Consider the folk-pop to big-band vibrancy of an aptly-titled Dopamine Shot, an uplifting and excitable listen, with a full-orchestral brightness that’s naturally good-mood inducing. Or on the flip-side, the notably more emotionally heavy celebration and relief of an epic journey that is The Glorious Return.
By all accounts, no genre is out of reach, as Liz Huang creates from a clearly passionate perspective – noting an adoration for the escapism and power of music in all of its forms. The central, beating heart of each work is the story and its associated emotions, and the details and arrangements that follow are naturally a reaction to and tool for representing these underlying intentions.
Since graduating from the Berklee College of Music, Liz Huang has worked as a composer, arranger, and orchestrator, creating a multitude of scores for film, television, and video games. Her background includes classical training and a Master of Music Degree, and one of her most significant recording experiences was at AIR Studios in London, where she recorded her piece The Last Battle, seen above, with the brilliant Jake Jackson. “It’s a work that holds deep personal meaning for me, both emotionally and technically—it really captures the kind of cinematic storytelling I aim for in my scores.”
The music is consistently beautiful, and skilfully crafted – the mood created in each instance something mighty and memorable in itself. From the intimate folk offerings, to the more empowering and globally enchanting works, such as the phenomenal Distant Lament – a personal favourite, not least of all for its sense of melancholy and euphoric, inspiring possibility intertwined – always the music depicts a sense of presence and power that’s enthralling.
Liz Huang’s repertoire also holds noteworthy live recordings with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, as well as a plethora of projects shaped by literature, psychology, and themes of longing and memory. These inner threads largely inform the emotional language of her music, and as such, her devotedly niche approach and unrivalled degree of ability makes for an impressively immersive listen in every case.
Liz Huang’s music confidently underlines the depth of what’s possible, when creativity, work ethic, passion, and artistic charisma, all consistently intertwine at the helm.
Find Liz Huang on Apple, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube & her Website.
