Oswald Huỳnh is a Vietnamese American composer whose music navigates aesthetics and tradition, language and translation, and the relationship between heritage and identity. Described as “planetary music” (The St. Louis American), “oftentimes escaping the standards of orchestration” (Luigi Nono International Composition Prize), and “a gifted writer for orchestra” (Chicago Tribune), 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, 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, and Leo Schlaifer. Huỳnh’s music has been presented at Orchestra Hall (MN), Conservatoire de musique de Montréal (Canada), Tiara Koto Hall (Japan), Palazzo delle Feste (Italy), Jacobs School of Music, Jordan Hall, Copland House, SONiC Festival, Conservatorium Maastricht (Netherlands), Mizzou International Composers Festival, Powell Hall, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (Thailand), Ear Taxi Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Northwestern University New Music Conference, and The Sheldon Concert Hall, 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 New York Youth Symphony, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Society of Composers, and ASCAP. Huỳnh will serve as the Composer-in-Residence with the Louisville Orchestra for their 2024/25 season as part of their Creator Corps program.

Highlights include several premieres and performances of Huỳnh’s orchestral works with the Louisville Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, and more; a new commission for Trio Sheliak to be premiered in Italy; the culmination of a collaboration with violinist Hyeyung Sol Yoon and harpist Jennifer Ellis as part of a fellowship with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music; a setting of Bao Phi’s and Thi Bui’s A Different Pond for narrator and orchestra; his first large-scale orchestra work, Tiếng, which examines the Vietnamese language itself as a source of music.

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.