Yuhan Su

Emotional and intellectual in tone, vibraphonist Yuhan Su crafts sophisticated music that merges traditional and modern jazz idioms while drawing creative fuel from literature, painting, and additional artistic disciplines. Born in Gongguan, Miaoli, Taiwan, she began piano lessons at age seven and took up percussion three years later. At eighteen she relocated to Taipei, where she majored in percussion at the Taipei National University of Arts, earned a master’s degree in 2008, performed for three years with Ju Percussion Group II, appeared with the TNUA percussion ensemble in Seoul in 2005, and received recognition for a multimedia collaboration.

In 2008 she moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music, studying vibraphone with Dave Samuels and Ed Saindon before graduating in 2011. The following year she settled in New York City and began work on her debut album, Flying Alone. After raising four thousand dollars through crowdfunding, she issued the recording on Greg Osby’s Inner Circle label in 2012; it earned nominations for Best Instrumental Album and Best Instrumental Composition (title track) at Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards. Her second Inner Circle release, A Room of One’s Own, appeared in 2015. Su then joined Sunnyside Records, which issued her third album, City Animals, in 2018—an album inspired by her New York experiences that later won Best Album and Best Jazz Album at the Taiwanese Golden Indie Music Awards.

Beyond her solo work, she joined Brian Krock’s Big Heart Machine and contributed to the ensemble’s self-titled 2018 album. Additional credits include guest appearances on recordings by Kenji Herbert and Vivienne Aerts, sessions with Jason Yeager’s group, and performances alongside Miho Hazama, Kyle Saulnier, and Quinsin Nachoff. In 2023 she released her fourth album, Liberated Gesture, an ambitious project drawing inspiration from artists such as Hans Hartung and Joan Didion.