Born in Iowa City, Iowa, Ching-chu Hu (M.A., M.F.A. in composition, 1996) studied at Yale University, Freiburg Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany, The University of Iowa, and the University of Michigan, where he earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition. His composition teachers included William Bolcom, William Albright, Michael Daugherty, Leslie Bassett, Bright Sheng, Evan Chambers, David Gompper and Richard Hervig. His conducting teachers included Alastair Neale, David Stern, and James Dixon. He also studied piano with Donald Currier, Stéphane Lemelin, and Logan Skelton and bass with Diana Gannett and Eldon Oberecht.

He is currently on the faculty at Denison University.

Ching-Chu Hu is a frequent collaborator with the University of Iowa School of Music: the UI Symphony Orchestra and Professor of Violin Scott Conklin performed his Violin Concerto No. 3, “Water Spirits” in April 2015, and performed the world premiere of his composition The Phoenix in 2016.

Honors include being named the Aaron Copland Fellow at the MacDowell Colony for the Arts, composer-in-residence at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, guest composer at the American Music Week Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, and winner of various competitions, including the 2018 American Prize for Chamber Music, the 2nd Annual Secret Opera competition, Fifteen Minutes of Fame Competition, and inclusion on ERM Media’s “Masterworks of the New Era” CD series.