“It was truly a night like no other as the audience’s hearts and minds were opened.” – The Paisano on opening night of Women on the Line
Wesley S. Uchiyama-Penix (b. 1994) is a composer, producer, audio engineer, educator, and performer from the San Antonio/Austin area. Wesley also creates synth-pop music under the artist name WSU-P.
His compositions have been performed at the University of Texas at San Antonio New Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest Festival, Performing Media Festival, SEAMUS, University of Oklahoma inner sOUndscapes, Notre Dame University, University of Utah, New Media Sound & Art Summit, and KPAC 88.3 San Antonio. Some of his collaborations include the Waterloo Dance Company, San Antonio Ambient Orchestra, JACK Quartet via the JACK Studio program, Texas State Mysterium for New Music, multi-instrumentalist Richard D. Hall, and singer/librettist Jourdan Laine Howell.
Recently, Wesley was commissioned by the University of Texas at San Antonio Lyric Theatre to compose Women on the Line, a chamber opera exploring major moments in American history based around the telephone through the lens of women. Wesley was also commissioned by the San Antonio Ambient Orchestra to compose and produce Elidosta in 2025. His work for piano and post-processing, Azure, was selected for performance at the Performing Media Festival in 2024, and his flex chamber works Elidosta and Border of Wind were performed by the Texas State Mysterium for New Music at Texas State University in April 2025.
Some of the Wesley’s recent accomplishments include his chamber opera Women on the Line receiving a Global Music Award (Bronze) for the composer and contemporary opera categories in 2025 and was a finalist for The American Prize in the Opera/Theater/Film/Dance category in 2026. His chamber opera Soul of Word was a finalist for The American Prize’s Opera/Theater/Film/Dance category in 2025, and its film adaptation received a Remi Award from the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in 2024. He was selected to be a JACK Studio Artist in 2022 for his piece Reverie of Mist.
As an audio engineer, he has worked on projects with jazz quartet Sued Nandayapa Bergmann Saunders (Ropeadope Sur), Oswaldo Zapata and Kasandra Keeling’s New South American Music for Trumpet & Piano (Global Music Award Silver Medal), and Richard D. Hall’s soundtrack for the video-dance But Where There’s Hope There’s Life.
Wesley is currently a doctoral student and graduate part-time instructor at Texas Tech University studying under Dr. Hideki Isoda and Dr. John Boyle. He holds an M.M. in Composition from Texas State University and a B.M. in Music Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He has studied under Michael Ippolito, Richard Hall, and Ethan Wickman.