Dai Wei is originally from China. Her musical journey navigates the spaces between east and west, classical and pop, electronic and acoustic, innovation and tradition. Her music often challenges the practice of labeling and delves into the untold narratives of social issues and obscured historical events from various communities, creating works with contemporary resonance and reflecting an introspection on how these multidimensional conflicts and tensions can create and inhabit worlds of their own. Being an experimental vocalist, she performs in the manner of Khoomei throat singing in her recent compositions, through which are filtered by different experiences and backgrounds as a calling that transcends genres, races, and labels.

Described as “impassioned” by The New York Times, “with a striking humanity” by The Washington Post, and “incredibly creative and dynamic” by the Utah Symphony Orchestra, she was featured in The Washington Post’s “22 for 22’: Composers and Performers to Watch this year.” Dai Wei was awarded CANOA Commission (Composing a New Orchestra Audience) from the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Reading. Her piece for chamber orchestra, multi-channel voices, and electronics, Invisible Portals, co-commissioned by American Composers Orchestra, Michigan Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, premiered at Carnegie Hall in March 2022, conducted by Marin Alsop.

Her music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles including Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Bang on a Can, Alarm Will Sound, and Aizuri String Quartet. Her music have been broadcast by WRTI, Performance Today, WHYY, Shanghai Dragon Television, Radio Television Hong Kong, and Qinghai Television.

Recent and upcoming events include a multimedia work commissioned by Kronos Quartet and pipa virtuoso Wu Man for their 50th Anniversary Celebration, a chamber orchestra piece for the Albany Symphony, and a multichannel vocal and string quartet piece for the Ying Quartet. Dai Wei is currently pursuing her doctorate in Music Composition at Princeton University, where she holds a 2024-25 Procter Honorific Fellowship. She holds an Artist Diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music. After she finished her B.A. in Music Composition at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in China, she came to the United States and earned an M.M. in Music Composition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.