Biography
Born in Taoyuan, Taiwan ROC, Shih-wei Carrasco-Wu (Shih-wei/they) is thrilled to join the ranks of the SDA production team as the Associate Production Manager. Before USC, Wu held production roles at Chapman University and UCI. Wu served as Interim Head of Production at UCI from 2021-22, overseeing the transition back into in-person productions following the COVID-19 shutdown.
Wu is also a composer-performer on the Japanese folk drums and flutes (taiko, shakuhachi and yokobue). Noted by LA Times as a “passionate performer” and by renowned cellist Mike Block as ‘a musician to look to in the future’, Wu is an often sought-after collaborator and recording artist. In addition to leading their own genre bending project, Red Eye 2 Tokyo, Wu spends most of their creative energy in collaborating with multidisciplinary artists and performance companies including hyper puppetry troupe, Rogue Artist Ensemble; modern dance company, MULTIPLEX DANCE; Taiwanese-American composer, Michele Chang; contemporary playwright and actor, Lisa Dring; visual artist, Christine Marie Salama; shaman and performance artist, Yuenen ,and Hong Kong based multimedia artist, Simon Leong, just to name a few.
As a performer, Wu has shared the stage with Yoko Ono, Kei Akagi, Watanabe Kaoru, Hayashida Hiroyuki, Edward Perez, and more. In 2022, Wu was the featured Japanese wind soloist on the PS5 exclusive ‘Rise of the Rōnin’. In 2024 and 2025, Wu performed at La Jolla Playhouse and The Public Theater as the stage taiko drummer and composer for the world premiere of “Sumo” by Lisa Sanaye Dring. In 2025, Wu served as the Japanese music specialist and stage musician for East-West Players’ production of “Pacific Overture”.