ABOUT

Polish of Vietnamese descent composer and pianist, Ania Vu (née Vũ Đặng Minh Anh) writes music that explores the interplay between the sound properties of the words and their meanings, musical energy related to form, and varied notions of time. She also enjoys crafting her own text that serves as a sonic, formal, and expressive guiding reference in her musical writing process.

Her recent premiere of "small tenderness" at Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music was described by the Boston Globe as an exhibition of "artful vocal writing [that] ranges from percussive whispers to glinting, pure-voiced lines that [...] blended elegantly into the roiling cauldron of strings." Ania has received recognition and fellowships from ASCAP, the American Opera Project, Copland House, Tanglewood, the Boston New Music Initiative, and the I-Park Foundation, and has been privileged to have worked with the New Fromm players, the Grossman Ensemble, DanceWorks Chicago, the Mannes American Composers Ensemble (MACE), the Daedalus and Mivos string quartets, Sō Percussion, the TAK Ensemble, and the International Contemporary Emsemble, among others.

Ania was the 2022-23 Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Chicago's Center for Contemporary Composition and a 2021-23 composer fellow with the Composers & the Voice. She was a lecturer in composition at the University of Texas at Austin and is currently a lecturer at the University of Chicago. Ania received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.M. in composition and theory from the Eastman School of Music.

Together with pianist Eunmi Ko, they started an initiative called The Music She Writes, a series of four virtual concerts featuring 25 works by Asian female composers. This project aims to highlight the diversity and significance of music by a very large, yet underrepresented community.

Outside of music, Ania has a deep interest in languages, and speaks fluent English, Polish, French, and Vietnamese, in addition to having studied Latin, German, and Greek. She also enjoys traveling - having visited 30 countries so far -, wandering in all kinds of museums, and ballroom dancing.

Ania is also an actively performing pianist. For more information about her piano background, performances and teaching, please scroll down to Piano.

NEWS


2024

January 3
Ania begins her appointment as a lecturer at the University of Chicago.

January 1
Two new video releases:
floating dandelions for solo marimba, commissioned and premiered by Tomek Arnold with the support of Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage Grant.

small tendernessfor vocal sextet and string quartet.

2023

October 25
Ania is honored to be one of the 10 recipients of the Copland House Residency Awards. Read press release here.

October 23
Ania is invited by the University of Texas at San Antonio to give a guest lecture "Unlocking Creativity: Composing with Constraints" and teach masterclasses to composition students.

August 21
Ania joins the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin's Butler School of Music as a Lecturer in Music Composition in the Fall 2023. Her duties include teaching a graduate seminar and giving composition lessons to graduate students.

July 31
The world premiere of small tenderness at Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music receives a review from the Boston Globe. "The piece’s artful vocal writing ranges from percussive whispers to glinting, pure-voiced lines that, in this premiere under the incisive baton of Stefan Asbury, blended elegantly into the roiling cauldron of strings. Full article here.

March 14, 15
Ania is a guest composer at Roosevelt University's Electro-Acoustic Music Festival. Her activities include teaching lessons to undergraduate and graduate students, giving a presentation about her music, and having two of her pieces performed at the festival by student Nick Reeves, faculty Winston Choi, and guest performer Kyle Flens.

2022

September 27
Ania begins her appointment as the Postdoctoral Instructor at the University of Chicago's Center for Contemporary Composition.

EVENTS


UPCOMING


All event times are in the local timezone.

2024

May 26, 3:00PM
Ania premieres a new piece for solo piano by Jack Cramer at the New Music Ensemble concert in the Logan Penthouse at the University of Chicago in Chicago, IL.

March 25, 4PM
Performance of Five in One by ensembleNEWsqr at the First Congressional Church in Sarasota, FL.


PAST


March 5, 7:30
Performance of Tik-Tak for soprano, flute, clarinet, percussion, violin by the Modern Music Ensemble in Meany Hall—Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.

2023

November 29, 7:30
Performance of feathered beings for thirteen players at the University of Texas at Austin's Butler School of Music, Bates Recital Hall.

November 27
Performance of floating dandelions by Tomasz Arnold at The Karol Szymanowski State Music School Complex no. 4 in Warsaw.

November 11, 4PM
Performance of floating dandelions by Tomasz Arnold at PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention) at the Indiana Convention Center, Room 120 in Indianapolis, IN.

November 3, 7:30
Performance of floating dandelions by Tomasz Arnold at the University at Buffalo, NY.

November 2
US Premiere of floating dandelions by Tomasz Arnold at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

October, 25, 5PM & 7:30PM
Performance of 2+ by Eunmi Ko and Kevin von Kampen on Kevin's Faculty recital at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL.

October, 15, 5PM & 7:30PM
Premiere of floating dandelions for solo marimba, commissioned by Tomasz Arnold at the Academy of Music in Krakow, the Concert Hall, in Krakow, Poland.

August 19, 6 PM
Premiere of adrift for solo vibraphone, commissioned by Wesley Fowler at Boston Conservatory at Berklee in Boston, MA.

July 29, 6PM
Premiere of small tenderness for vocal sextet and string quartet, commissioned jointly by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Joyce Linde in honor of Ellen Highstein, Tanglewood Music Center Director from 1997–2022. Performance by TMC vocal fellows and Fromm players, and conducted by Stefan Asbury as part of Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music. Free admission. Find details here.

May 24, 8:30PM
Performance of 2+ by the Flannau Duo (Kyle Flens and Jonathan Hannau) at Constellation in Chicago, IL. Find tickets here.

April 21, 7:30PM
Performance of 2+ by Ensemble Dal Niente (Kyle Flens and Winston Choi) as part of the ensemble's residence at Miami University of Ohio. Find details here.

April 8, 2PM
Performance of t(h)rills for solo cello with electronics by Eduard Teregulov at the SEAMUS National Conference, Benzaquen Hall at The DiMenna Center, NYC.

April 3, 7:30PM
Performance of feathered beings for thirteen players conducted by David Fulmer at the Auditorium of the Mannes School of Music, NYC.

March 24, 7:30PM
New Dance/New Music - premiere of khuoh-tsuh for soprano, percussion, and two dancers, with choreography by Noelle Kayser. Performance by Kristina Bachrach, John Corkill, Angel Khaytyan and Amelia Shultz. The Logan Center Penthouse at The University of Chicago, IL. Find tickets here.

March 15, 7:30PM
Performance of 2+ by Winston Choi and Kyle Flens and t(h)rills by Nick Reeves at Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL.

March 5, 7:30PM
Ania performs three pieces as part of the UChicago New Music Ensemble: her piece Five in One alongside Paul Novak, Rina Sugawara, Fumika Mizuno, Audrey Slote, conducted by Justin Weiss, Prisms and Mirrors for pierrot sextet by Paul Novak, and Intersections for open instrumentation by Brittany J. Green. Performance at the Logan Center Penthouse, The University of Chicago, IL. Find details here.

March 3, 7:30PM
Premiere of feathered beings alongside three other world premieres by Keith Fitch, Yuting Tan, and Du Yun, commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition's Grossman Ensemble and conducted by David Fulmer at the Logan Center Performance Hall, The University of Chicago, IL. Find tickets here.

February 26, 7:30PM
Performance of A Lullaby for a Sleepless Boy by Emma Carleton and Ziang Xu at Sudler Recital Hall, Yale School of Music in New Haven, CT. Watch livestream here.

February 17, 7:30PM
Performance of Dance Variations on a Theme by J.S. Bach by Michelle Kim-Painter and Eduard Teregulov at The Dance Project in Tampa, FL.

February 3, 4:30PM
Performance of t(h)rills by Eduard Teregulov at CHIMEFest at the Logan Center Penthouse at The University of Chicago, IL. Find details here.

January 10, 7:30PM
Premiere of Scene 1: Odessa’s House from the opera Through the Doors by Emily Mwila, Phillip Bullock, Aaren Rivard, and Mila Henry at the Great Room, American Opera Project in Brooklyn, NY. Find details here.

January 8, 7:30PM
Premiere of Scene 1: Odessa’s House from the opera Through the Doors by Emily Mwila, Phillip Bullock, Aaren Rivard, and Mila Henry at Opera America in NYC. Find details here.

MUSIC


2023

floating dandelions for Solo Marimba

small tendernesss for Vocal Sextet and String Quartet

feathered beings for Thirteen Players

khuoh-tsuh for Soprano, Percussion, and Dance


2022

In Front of a New York Hotel for Tenor and Piano

Here, Alive for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano

Strange Birds for Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Percussion, and Piano

Through the Doors - an opera for chamber ensemble, multimedia, and electronics


2021

hushed, muted for Percussion Quartet

adrift for solo Vibraphone

2+ for Percussion, Piano and fixed media

t(h)rills for solo Viola/solo Cello and electronics


2020

Dance Variations on a Theme by J.S.Bach for Violin and Cello

Sept Vignettes for solo Double Bass


2019

I yearn, therefore I am for String Quartet

String Quartet no. 2

Tik-Tak for Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Percussion

Dragonfliesfor Saxophone Quartet


2018

Gra dźwięków, gra słów (Soundplay, wordplay) for Female Voice, Percussion, and Piano

Five in One for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano

Against Time for solo Piano


2017


Symphonic Suite for Orchestra

Fantasia for Orchestra


2016

String Quartet no. 1, four movements

2015

Dark Whims for Piano, arranged for Wind Ensemble

Mrs. and Mr. Potato Headsfor Flute and Bassoon


2014

Paroles du Chagrin for Soprano and Piano

Dark Whims for solo Piano


Earliest Works

Piano Variations [2012]

Somewhere over the Clouds for Saxophone Soprano and Piano [2012]

PIANO


Ania is also an actively performing pianist in the standard and contemporary repertoire, having received several national and international piano competition awards. She has premiered and performed her works and those of her colleagues—most recently, she was invited by the Wolf Humanities Center at the University of Pennsylvania to present an evening-length concert of her compositions. She has also been invited by Illuminate Women's Music (UK) to give a recital of her solo piano works and several times by the University of Rochester's Skalny Center to perform a recital of music by Polish composers alongside Paulina Swierczek. Ania counts Vincent Lenti, Irina Rumiancewa-Dabrowski, and her mother Hong Anh Dang as her principal teachers. She has also taken lessons and masterclasses with Amy Yang, Douglas Humpherys, Dang Thai Son, Wojciech Świtała, Thomas Rosenkranz, Andrzej Jasiński, Philippe Giusiano, and Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń.

Ania draws great satisfaction from being a music educator, teaching piano and music theory. She maintains a piano studio of students of all ages and various skill levels. At the University of Pennsylvania, she has taught an introductory course to music theory and musicianship, and an intermediate-level ear training and keyboard skills lab. In June 2015, she participated in a program where selected musicians traveled to Zimbabwe and South Africa to perform and teach high school students.

Ania Vu - Recital of her piano works
[YouTube]

Songs of Identity with soprano Paulina Swierczek
[YouTube]

Grażyna Bacewicz - Toccata from Sonata no. 2
[YouTube]

J. S. Bach - Prelude and Fugue in F Major, Book II
[YouTube]

A. Skriabin - Sonata no. 2, mov I
[YouTube]

Justin Jaramillo - ex cathedra
[SoundCloud]

Justin Jaramillo - Proud Maisie
[SoundCloud]

Flannery Cunningham - Groundwater
[YouTube]

CONTACT

For more information or inquiries about scores, commissions, performances, or taking lessons in composition, piano, music theory/aural skills, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at ania.vu94@gmail.com.