Biography

Ruth Shyu is the recipient of the 2002 Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (The Emmy Foundation) music internship award – an annual award in film-scoring at the national level, and of the 2004 ASCAPlus award for her jazz piano compositions.

From 2007 to 2020, Ruth focused on writing Christian worship music, much of which had been used in worship services at Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts.  Her work included many instrumental arrangements of traditional hymns, some choral work and video-scoring work.  Among her larger work are the underscore for the documentary “200 Years of Park Street Church” – a film for the bicentennial celebration of the church, and a 45-minute children’s musical titled “Blinded by the Light – the Story of Paul”.  More recently, she has started to write piano teaching pieces.

Ruth is a pianist and a dedicated music educator.  She has performed the Beethoven 5th Piano Concerto (“The Emperor”) with the MIT Symphony, published “Night Lights” – a CD of piano improvisation, played at the Westin Hotel at Copley Square in Boston, and performed in many faculty recitals at community music schools.  She has taught at private schools and community music schools, including Winchester Community Music School, All Newton Music School, Opus119 School of Music, and Cerritos Yamaha Music School.  She also teaches at her private studio (see: www.Ruthshyupianostudio.com)

Ruth graduated summa cum laude in film scoring from Berklee College of Music.  She studied piano pedagogy at the New England Conservatory with Jean Stackhouse, and has a Level I certification of the Kodaly Method.  She is trained in choral conducting with Robert Olson, and orchestral conducting with George Monseur.  The piano teachers who were most influential to her include Jeff Covell, David Deveau, Wanda Maximilien, Paul Kueter, and Ms. Cheng from her childhood.