Ya-Jhu Yang holds a bachelor's degree from the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. She also completed graduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (2009) and the Curtis Institute of Music (2011), where she studied with renowned composers including Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon, and Nils Vigeland.
As a 2009 prize winner in the Washington International Competition, Ms. Yang's piano trio Letters to Formosa was performed at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She has since received commissions from Philadelphia's Rock School of Dance Education, National Taiwan Recital Hall Artists, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, the Main Line Chinese Culture Center, and the Curtis Institute, among others. In addition, her opera scene The Falcon, which was commissioned by the International Opera Theater through the American Composers Forum's Philadelphia chapter in 2010, was produced and premiered in November 2010 at the Prince Theater (PA) and later toured Italy, receiving productions in Città delle Pieve and Saluzzo.
Ms. Yang’s recent commissions included a choral arrangement of the American folk song Shenandoah for Commonwealth Youthchoirs to celebrate the organization’s 20th anniversary, Lux Aeterna for loadbang (an ensemble of trumpet, bass clarinet, bass trombone, and baritone), and a new work for Trio Barclay. Ms. Yang’s song cycle Five Minahan Songs was added to the Curtis Institute’s permanent online archive in 2020.