Photo by O’Neil Arnold
Oswald Huỳnh is a Vietnamese American composer whose music navigates aesthetics and tradition, language and translation, and the relationship between heritage and identity. “A gifted writer for orchestra” (Chicago Tribune), his music has been described as “captivating and deeply imaginative” (Teddy Abrams), “planetary music” (The St. Louis American), and “oftentimes escaping the standards of orchestration” (Luigi Nono International Composition Prize). Huỳnh’s work is characterized by intricate contrasts of timbre and interweaving textures that are rooted in narrative, culture, and memory.
Laureate of the 2025 Frederic A Juilliard | Walter Damrosch Rome Prize in Musical Composition, Huỳnh served as Composer-in-Residence with the Louisville Orchestra (2024/25) and Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra (2023–2025). With performances across North America, Europe, and Asia, he has collaborated with artists such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, North Carolina Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Composers Orchestra, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Music From Copland House, Tacet(i) Ensemble, Trio Sheliak, Quatuor Bozzini, Del Sol String Quartet, [Switch~ Ensemble], Fear No Music, IU New Music Ensemble, Nefelibata New Music Collective, deaf rabbit duo, Li-Chin Li, Megan Ihnen, Payton MacDonald, Yoshiaki Onishi, Leo Schlaifer, and more. He is the winner of the Luigi Nono International Composition Prize, New England Philharmonic Call for Scores Competition, Musiqa Emerging Composer Commission, IPO Classical Evolve Composer Competition, Black Bayou Composition Award, and has received recognition from the New York Youth Symphony, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Society of Composers, and ASCAP.
Huỳnh holds a Bachelor of Arts from Lewis & Clark College and a Master of Music from the University of Missouri. His principal teachers include Texu Kim, Gabriela Lena Frank, Carolina Heredia, Stefan Freund, and Michael Johanson.
Please do not use any other biographies other than the ones listed on this page or in the document listed below. Any changes to these biographies should be approved prior to publication by sending a copy to oswald@oswaldhuynh.com