Jacky Jiaqi Liu
Jacky Jiaqi Liu (b. 2002) is a multi-award-winning Chinese composer, currently based in New York City. Recognized for his poetic, diverse, and highly dramatic musical expression, Liu’s work reflects universal values such as compassion, belonging, and love. His compositions are inspired by philosophical and literary influences that resonate deeply with his emotions, inviting the audience to reflect and introspect.
As a recipient of the Frederick Loewe Scholarship in Composition at The Juilliard School, Liu is pursuing his BM degree under the guidance of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner. He made history as the first student from the Central Conservatory of Music Middle School to be accepted into Juilliard’s undergraduate composition program. Among his numerous accolades, Liu has won the 2024 American Prize in Vocal Chamber Music (Charles Ives Award in Chamber Music), the ASCAP Foundation 2023 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the 2024 Juilliard Orchestra Competition Arthur Friedman Prize, and the 2023 Juilliard Gena Raps String Quartet Prize. He was also awarded the SOLI Chamber Ensemble’s 30x30x30 Project Competition in 2024.
Liu’s compositions have been performed across the U.S., Europe, South Korea, Japan, and China, with recent highlights including the world premieres of his “View in Spring” with Grammy®- winning conductor Lucas Richman and members of The Bangor Symphony Orchestra in 2022, the 2024 premiere of his string quartet “Heart! We Will Forget Him!” at Lincoln Center, and the 2024 premiere of his first symphony “Crossing” with conductor Jeffrey Milarsky and The Juilliard Orchestra. In October 2024, Liu was invited as a featured composer for the musicON Festival, where his chamber music work was performed at the America’s National Opera Center in New York. In 2025, his piano-vocal work was featured as part of the SOLI Chamber Ensemble’s 30th anniversary celebration, and he collaborated again with Jeffrey Milarsky and The Juilliard Orchestra on the premiere of his second symphony “Echoes of Impermanence” at Juilliard.
As a passionate educator, Liu has served as a faculty member at the Long Island Music Conservatory and as a judge for the 11th Annual Youth Music Composition Competition in 2024. He has been an active member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) since 2022.
Special thanks to
Team River Road:
for their sponsorship of Jacky Jiaqi Liu throughout the project.
The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Composed March 2023 – Voice, Piano
From the composer: “The title of this piece comes from the last sentence of Two Loves, a poem written by the English poet Lord Alfred Douglas. It’s widely assumed that Bosie wrote this poem given to his lover, the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. Soon after, the continuous gossip that resulted from the love affair reached Douglas’s father – the Marquis of Queensberry. This poem was deemed to be the testimony of their scandalous relationship that led Wilde to the trial where he was convicted of sodomy and gross indecency in 1895.
I chose this poem to set the music because how beautiful and elegant this poem is, and I believe the implicit message in this poem is still meaningful in today’s society.“