*Long version*

 

Praised for his “exquisite playing” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Yehudi Wyner, violinist Chuong Vu has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber music collaborator in North and South America, Europe, and Asia, with repertoire ranging from early baroque to modern music. The Saigon Times writes that "Chuong Vu is an instrumentalist to treasure. Not only does he play with exquisite tone and superb technical virtuosity, but he also clearly loves the music, and loves playing it."

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A regular soloist with all major Vietnamese orchestras, including the Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra, Ho Chi Minh City Symphony Orchestra (HBSO), and Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, Chuong has appeared as a guest soloist with Sun Symphony Orchestra and Vietnam Classical Players (Vietnam), Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra (Kazakhstan), Sun Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra (Taiwan),  Ferruccio Busoni Chamber Orchestra (Italy), Orchestra of Slovak Radio and Television (Slovakia), Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra (Brazil), Chihuahua Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, San Angelo Symphony Orchestra, Richardson Symphony Orchestra, Plano Symphony Orchestra, Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra, and the UNT Baroque Orchestra (USA), among others. He has performed a diverse concerto repertoire and popular works for violin and orchestra, among them the violin concertos by Bach, Barber, Bruch, Faure, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Vivaldi, Wieniawski, and Zhanhao He/Gang Chen, Scottish Fantasy by Bruch, Concerto Grosso No. 1 by Schnittke, Double Concertos by Brahms and Mendelssohn, Triple Concerto by Beethoven, Concertos for Four Violins by Vivaldi and Valentini; Sinfonia Concertante for Four Violins by Maurer, and the music by Chausson, Dvorak, Rimsky-Korsakov, Saint-Saens, and John Williams. Conductors under whom Chuong has performed as a soloist include Clay Couturiaux, Hector Guzman, and David Itkin (USA), Raúl Velázquez (Mexico), Alexander Mickelthwate (Germany), Kalle Kuusava (Finland), Nathalie Marin and Olivier Ochanine (France), Massimo Belli (Italy), Shlomo Mintz (Israel), Paul Leenhouts (Holland), Wojciech Czepiel (Poland), Branislav Hronec (Slovakia), Christopher Zimmerman (UK), Honna Tetsuji (Japan), Fouad Fakhouri (Lebanon), Ai Kuang Sun (Taiwan), Fi Fi Le (Vietnam-Macedonia), Tran Vuong Thach (Vietnam), among others.

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An avid chamber musician, Chuong has been heard at Festival Internacional de Música do Pará, Euro Music Festival and Academy, Boston Early Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, Texas Music Festival, HBSO's Autumn Melodies Art Festival, and Vietnam Connection Music Festival, as well as at concert series such as Fine Art Chamber Players, Live at Dallas Steinway Hall, and Chamber Music International. Notable collaborators in concerto and chamber music performances include Shlomo Mintz, Stephanie Chase, Nai-Yuan Hu, Kyung Sun Lee, Cynthia Roberts, Vilmos Szabadi, Chen Xi, Bui Cong Duy, Susan Dubois, Eugene Osadchy, Jeff Bradetich, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Max Levinson, Christoph Hammer, and Paul Leenhouts, among others.

 

Chuong's solo and chamber music performances have been broadcast live on Ho Chi Minh City Television, Vietnamese National Television, and Brazilian TV Cultura Canal 2. Further highlights include a solo performance of the U.S. National Anthem with the Open Classical Orchestra for an audience of more than 40,000 at the national-televised Texas Rangers game at the Globe Life Park in Arlington on July 29, 2016 and appearances as the featured soloist with the HBSO Symphony Orchestra, performing the violin concertos by Barber and Sibelius at the special concerts to celebrate 20 years of the Vietnam-U.S. diplomatic relationship and 100 years of Finland's Independence Day, respectively, and a concert tour of 6 major cities in Vietnam with pianist Maxime Zecchini in an official event organized by the French Institute in Vietnam to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between Vietnam and France.

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A prolific orchestral musician, Chuong has served as concertmaster of the San Angelo Symphony Orchestra and the VASCAM Ensemble. He has performed as a guest concertmaster for the symphony orchestras of Amarillo, Irving, Monroe, Richardson, and Wichita Falls. Other ensembles he has played with include the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Opera Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and Oklahoma City Philharmonic, among many others. As a baroque violinist, Chuong has collaborated with early music ensembles including the Houston Chamber Choir, Mercury Baroque, Orchestra of New Spain, Texas Camerata, and Ensemble Fantasmi.

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Chuong's interest in new music has seen him collaborate with many contemporary composers, including Yehudi Wyner, Robert Nelson, William Coble, and Jonathan Leshnoff. Composers PQ Phan, Dang Hong Anh, and Vu Viet Anh have written and dedicated their works to him.

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Chuong Vu holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Houston, a graduate artist certificate and a doctorate from the University of North Texas. His principal teachers include Fredell Lack, Emanuel Borok, Philip Lewis, Albert Muenzer, Cynthia Roberts, Nguyen Anh Giang, and Bui Cong Thanh. He has performed in masterclasses given by Ruggiero Ricci, James Buswell, Charles Castleman, Victor Dachenko, Alex Kerr, Elmar Oliveira, Rachel Podger, William Preucil, Lucie Robert, Sylvia Rosenberg, Almita Vamos, and Karen Turtle, among others. A passionate teacher himself, Dr. Vu has cultivated a number of talented young students, some of whom were recently accepted into music programs at Indiana University, the Eastman School of Music, the University of North Texas, the University of Houston, and Columbia University. His students have been prizewinners in national and international music competitions. Currently a violin professor at the Euro Arts Academy, Dr. Vu has held teaching positions at the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Arlington. He has given masterclasses in the US, Brazil, Germany, Poland, Kazakhstan, Taiwan, and Vietnam. In 2019, he served as the Deputy Chair of the Organizing Committee and a jury member of the Vietnam International Music Competition for Violin and Chamber Music. In 2020, he was invited to join the pre-selection jury for the George Enescu International Competition (Romania). In 2023, he served as a jury member for the X International Violin Competition "Astana-Violin" 'In Memory of David Oistrakh' (Kazakhstan).

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As the artistic director of the Vietnam Connection Music Festival and artistic advisor of the Vietnam International Music Competition, Dr. Vu is actively involved in the process of finding new sponsorship for the organizations, creating music programs to be performed at the festival, inviting international artists to the festival, and judging the competition.

 

Dr. Vu is married to Dr. Szemoke Jobbagy, the associate concertmaster of the Plano Symphony Orchestra. They live in North Texas with their three children, Elizabeth, Benjamin, and Isabella.