Su Lian Tan (born 1964) is a renowned composer and flautist. Her works, which tend to be regarded as avant-garde, have been commissioned by the Takács Quartet, Meridian Arts Ensemble and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She is currently on the faculty at Middlebury College, where her students have included members of the band Dispatch.
Born in Malaysia, Tan was a child prodigy, who began a professional career in music at the age of 14. She went on to study at Juilliard School, Bennington College and Princeton University with world-famous composers, such as Milton Babbitt, Bernard Rands and Henry Brant. She toured the world as a guest soloist, displaying her virtuosity on the flute, and making forays into opera (she is a lyric soprano) and pop music. She was hired by Middlebury College in 1994, and since then, she has focused on teaching and composition.
Recent premieres include a symphony, premiered by the Vermont Youth Orchestra, River of the Trunk, a song-cycle, set with the poems of fellow Middlebury professor John Elder, and Orfeo in Asia for piano, performed at the 2008 International Albert-Roussel Festival (France). Her next project is a series of songs composed in conjunction with author Jamaica Kincaid, to be titled "Jamaica Songs."
She is currently a professor of music at Middlebury College in Vermont teaching Composition and Music Theory classes. Her manner of teaching is known to be tremendously enthusiastic and charismatic and she is said to bring an irreplaceable energy into the classroom.