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 (2023–25). With performances across North America, Europe, and Asia, he has collaborated with artists and ensembles such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, 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 CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Prize, 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.
Oswald Huỳnh (b. 1997) is a composer whose works navigate Vietnamese aesthetics and tradition, language and translation, and the relationship between heritage and identity. Huỳnh writes music that explores timbre and texture to create evocative soundscapes rooted in storytelling, culture, and memory. His orchestral work Gia Đình calls to these ideas by exploring the impact of intergenerational trauma, cultural inheritance, and what is lost between eras. Huỳnh’s latest work for orchestra, Beauty despite daylight, draws musical inspiration from ru con—traditional Vietnamese lullabies—and engages with themes of home, kinship, and isolation.
As a composer, Huỳnh has been commissioned, premiered, and performed by artists such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Tacet(i) Ensemble, [Switch~ Ensemble], Del Sol String Quartet, Fear No Music, deaf rabbit duo, percussionist Payton MacDonald, composer/clarinetist Yoshiaki Onishi, and saxophonist Leo Schlaifer. Huỳnh’s music has been presented at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Bay View Music Festival, New Music on the Bayou Festival, Powell Hall, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, International Composition Institute of 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 Musiqa Emerging Composer Commission (2022), IPO Classical Evolve Composer Competition (2022), Black Bayou Composition Award (2022), Rena J. Ratte Memorial Award (2019), and has received recognition from the New York Youth Symphony, Society of Composers, and Pacific Chamber Orchestra. Huỳnh will serve as the Composer-in-Residence with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra for their 2023/24 season.
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 Associate and teaching music theory with the Portland Youth Philharmonic. His principal teachers include Texu Kim, Carolina Heredia, Stefan Freund, and Michael Johanson.
.webp)