Sinyan Shen

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Sinyan Shen is an American physicist and classical composer. Born in Shanghai, Sin-yan Shen studied music at very early age, mastering the vertical fiddle family of instruments. His dual career in music and physics culminated in the development of cultural acoustics, a discipline addressing scientifically the cultural molding of our ears and brain when it comes to music. Shen's life-long work centers on the question of "what music really is?"

Shen taught cultural acoustics at Northwestern University and Harvard University. He is currently Music Director of The Silk and Bamboo Ensemble and the Chinese Classical Orchestra, both touring internationally under the auspices of the Chinese Music Society of North America. He is editor of the international journal Chinese Music, music authority for the Encyclopedia Britannica, and a Fulbright Scholar. He serves as Technical advisor to the Shanghai Musical Instruments Factory.