Oswald Huỳnh is a Vietnamese American composer whose music navigates Vietnamese aesthetics and tradition, language and translation, and the relationship between heritage and identity. Described as “planetary music” (The St. Louis American) and “oftentimes escaping the standards of orchestration” (Luigi Nono International Composition Prize), his work is characterized by intricate contrasts of timbre and interweaving textures that are rooted in narrative, culture, and memory.

As a composer, Huỳnh has collaborated with artists such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, American Composers Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Music From Copland House, Tacet(i) Ensemble, [Switch~ Ensemble], Del Sol String Quartet, Fear No Music, IU New Music Ensemble, deaf rabbit duo, percussionist Payton MacDonald, composer/clarinetist Yoshiaki Onishi, and saxophonist Leo Schlaifer. Huỳnh’s music has been presented at Orchestra Hall (MN), Jacobs School of Music, Jordan Hall, Copland House, SONiC Festival, Conservatorium Maastricht (Netherlands), Mizzou International Composers Festival, Bay View Music Festival, New Music on the Bayou Festival, Powell Hall, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (Thailand), Arts Letters & Numbers, Ear Taxi Festival, Constellation, Oregon Bach Festival, Northwestern University New Music Conference, The Sheldon Concert Hall, and Wintergreen Music Festival, among others. He is the winner of the Luigi Nono International Composition Prize (Italy), 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 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, New York Youth Symphony, Society of Composers, and ASCAP. Huỳnh will serve as the Composer-in-Residence with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra for their 2023/24 season, and the Creator-in-Residence with the Louisville Orchestra for their 2024/25 season as part of their Creator Corps program.

Highlights from the 2023/24 season includes performances of his piece Gia Đình by the Minnesota Orchestra and New England Philharmonic; three new orchestral works for his residency with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra; the premiere of the revised version of I Ask My Mother to Sing by the IU New Music Ensemble; a new chamber work commissioned by the Houston-based Musiqa which explores the failures of memory; a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts as a fully-funded fellow where he will focus on symphonic works.

Huỳnh holds a Bachelor of Arts from Lewis & Clark College and a Master of Music from the University of Missouri. Currently based in Portland, Oregon, he is working at the American Composers Forum as the Artist Support Manager and teaching music theory with the Portland Youth Philharmonic. His principal teachers include Texu Kim, Carolina Heredia, Stefan Freund, and Michael Johanson.