Oswald Huỳnh, laureate of the 2025/26 Frederic A Juilliard | Walter Damrosch Rome Prize in Musical Composition, is a Vietnamese American composer whose music navigates Vietnamese aesthetics and tradition, language and translation, and the relationship between heritage and identity. His work is characterized by intricate contrasts of timbre and interweaving textures that are rooted in narrative, culture, and memory. Huỳnh has collaborated with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Tacet(i) Ensemble, Music From Copland House, and more. Other accolades include the CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Prize, Luigi Nono International Composition Prize, and Musiqa Emerging Composer Commission. Huỳnh is represented by Concert Artists Guild.
How has your time in Rome shaped or shifted the direction of your project so far?
After arriving in Rome, I quickly realized that my primary project would require significant research and workshopping, ultimately growing into a project with a multi-year timeline. In response, I shifted my efforts toward developing DIY/hybrid instruments, and thinking about the materiality of reclaimed and recycled objects that I've been collecting throughout the first half of my residency: wine corks from gatherings, post-dinner glass bottles, Styrofoam and cardboard from packages, ceramic vessels and fragments.
Inspired by the walking tours led by Caroline Goodson, I have found myself pondering on marble and spolia, scarcity and renewability, ruins and nature. Reflecting on these ideas has informed the way I am conceptualizing this project, as connections between these materials and the existing instruments of the Western orchestra begin to form.
What part of your daily routine or environment at the Academy has most influenced you and your work?
The solitude of the studio. Positioned in the middle of the Bass Garden, my studio windows offer a glimpse into how time passes at the Academy. An olive tree stands in front of my door, offering refuge. Green parakeets fly through the foliage to steal fruit. After lunch, members of the community sprawl throughout the grounds, basking in the sun. At sunset the stone pines become my horizon. In the stillness of moonlight, music emerges.
Have any encounters –with people, places, new information– opened up new paths in your research or practice in the past months?
Contrary to my previous answer, the connections I've made at the Academy have opened my practice in directions I never expected. Much of the first half of my residency has been spent communing with my fellow artists and scholars, exchanging ideas and processes. Conversations with Fellow David Keplinger on poetry, an artform that I have always loved, have rewired my perspective on literature, language, and translation. With David's encouragement, a group of us has even started writing poetry, which has already impacted the way I'm approaching composition.
Early conversations with Fellow Ginny Sims about ceramics and the locality of the clay she was planning to use returned me to taking ceramics lessons after being away from the medium for over ten years. I've also taken the opportunity to occasionally volunteer in the kitchen, completing basic tasks alongside staff. Food and cooking have always been important to me, and this has allowed me to step away from my work and stay grounded.
Ultimately, my practice has been broadened and enriched precisely by stepping away from it, allowing diverse perspectives, disciplines, and forms of labor to freely influence me.
What are you hoping to explore or deepen in the remaining months of your residency?
Having lived in the orchestral world for the past year, I am deeply grateful to be returning to writing chamber music for the Florence-based Trio Sheliak. I was first connected to this ensemble in 2023, which led to me visiting Italy for the first time the following year to collaborate with them on a new work. Now in 2026, I am composing another piece for them to premiere in Italy. I remember fondly being warmly greeted and hosted by the Trio, and that warmth has extended to nearly everyone I've met during this residency. In writing this work for Sheliak, I am deepening my relationship with active collaboration and the exchange of ideas. I plan to visit Florence a few times to workshop the music, developing the piece in parallel with the trio rather than in isolation.