Taiwanese composer Ya-Lan Chan is currently based in New York. She is interested in the collaborative process of music-making between composer and performer, as well as exploring the use of musical gestures to create subtle and transparent sounds. Additionally, she has collaborated with various artistic mediums, including animation, poetry, dancing, and lighting design.

Ya-Lan has recently been awarded the 2022 Manhattan Prize for her string quartet, was a finalist for the Mivos Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize, and received commissions from the Percussion Ensemble at the Manhattan School of Music and New Chamber Ballet. She has also received grants from the National Culture and Arts Foundation in Taiwan. Active participation in new music festivals, such as Etchings Festival (FR), Musikinstitut Darmstadt (GR), Yarn/Wire Institute, and Unheard-of CCI (USA), characterizes Ya-Lan's involvement in the contemporary music scene. She was invited to work with Longleash Trio as a fellow composer of the Loretto project in Louisville, KY.

Having graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a D.M.A. in composition, Ya-Lan was honored with the Saul Braverman Award in Music Theory. Prior to that, she served as the coordinator of the theory tutoring program and as a teaching fellow in the College theory department at the Manhattan School of Music. Her studies have been supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Education