Artist Bio

William Jae is a composer and pianist based in Los Angeles, CA whose work spans both concert and film music. As a Los-Angeles native, his music seeks to explore his personal upbringing in Koreatown and combine it with his fascination with psychological concepts and cinematic storytelling as well as the arts and sciences. His music draws from a broad array of genres from classical music, jazz, rock, hip hop, popular music, non-Western music, etc. From 2018 to 2020, he was the recipient of the Herbert Zipper Scholarship, which allowed him to study music tuition-free at the Colburn School of Music. From 2019 to 2020, he was a fellow at the Composer Fellowship Program where he was mentored by renowned composers such as Andrew Norman, Sarah Gibson, and Thomas Kotcheff. During his time as a fellow, William premiered his first string trio, Alabaster Wool, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. During the pandemic, William became the recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists Award and made his From the Top debut in Blanket Fort 2. In that same year, he was also a semi-finalist in the 2020 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award. In 2024, he was the youngest composer-in-residence at Millay Arts where he worked on several concert pieces for future announcements. William won first prize for the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester Composition Competition for Fragile Dreams and was programmed for their 2024/2025 season. Following the performance, Fragile Dreams will be aired on Classical 91.5 WXXO-FM in early 2026. In 2025, William had his first orchestral composition (Echoes From Journey’s End) performed by the San Gabriel Valley Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles. His works have been performed by other notable ensembles such as the Lyris Quartet, OSSIA, Bergamot Quartet, Norfolk New Music Ensemble, Salastina and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble as well as having one of his pieces performed at the International Double Reed Society in 2022. William has steadily worked on several film scores at USC along with independent filmmakers across the country. His film scores have been screened at several venues such as the Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre, The Little Theatre, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, etc. In recent years, William has also collaborated with visual artists and exhibitions with his most recent collaboration with the Moody Center at Rice University. William is a graduate at the Eastman School of Music and University of Rochester where he earned a dual degree in BM in Music Composition and a BA in Psychology. Currently, he is pursuing his master’s in music composition at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice.