Vivian Fung

Vivian Fung is a Canadian born composer. Born in Edmonton, Canada, she began composition studies with Violet Archer and later studied with Narcis Bonet in Paris, France. She received her doctorate from The Juilliard School in New York in 2002, where her mentors included David Diamond and Robert Beaser.

She composes many different types of music to be performed by different groups, such as orchestras, operas, quartets, and pianists. Her music is drawn from many different cultures and she uses that inspiration to merge it with Western forms. Examples of such non-Western influences are Balinese, Javanese gamelan, and folk songs from minority regions of China. Her personal heritage has proven to play a strong role in her music.

Among her many achievements, she has received a multitude of awards and grants: the 2012 Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts’ Gregory Millard Fellowship, ASCAP, BMI, American Music Center, MAP Fund, Music Alive!, and the League of American Orchestras, American Composers’ Forum, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Vivian has been composer-in-residence of the Delaware Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Loft chamber music series in Chicago, the San José Chamber Orchestra, and the Billings Symphony. Vivian Fung also completed residencies at the MacDowell, Yaddo, and Banff arts colonies, as well as residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She is also an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

Vivian Fung‘s work has been embraced as part of the core repertoire of music by many distinguished artists and ensembles around the globe.

In 2012, Naxos Canadian Classics released the world premiere recording of her 'Violin Concerto', 'Piano Concerto', her album “Dreamscapes,” and 'Glimpses' for prepared piano, with Metropolis Ensemble conducted by Andrew Cyr, featuring her personal friend, violinist Kristin Lee, and pianist Conor Hanick.^[1]

Her 'Violin Concerto' earned her the 2013 JUNO Award for “Classical Composition of the Year.” ^[2] Several of her works have also been released commercially on the Telarc, Çedille, and Signpost labels.

After the world premiere in March 2011 of Vivian's work 'Yunnan Folk Songs', The Chicago Tribune wrote, “Yunnan Folk Songs stood out… [with] a winning rawness that went beyond exoticism.”^[3] Vivian travels often to search for inspiration and so she has explored diverse cultures in North Vietnam, Spain, and Bali, Indonesia.

In 2012, Vivian traveled to Southwest China for ethno-musicological research to study minority music and cultures in the Yunnan province. It was a continuation of the research that previously inspired 'Yunnan Folk Songs' (2011). The project was commissioned by Fulcrum Point New Music in Chicago with support from the MAP Fund.

One of her most recent works to date is 'String Quartet No.3' which was a commission by the 11th Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC).^[4] It was performed by 10 accomplished string quartets and the American group, the Dover Quartet, won first prize.^[5] The Calgary Herald lauded the piece and even retitled it 'Dark Journeys'. Stephan Bonfield wrote,

"...recall Ms. Fung’s eloquent anguish during her pre-concert talk over the Connecticut school shootings whose reports we horribly witnessed last year, in addition to the tremendous world conflict that she was documenting, relevant at this moment in Syria, all against a backdrop of her own personal revelations about her family’s history and its journeys of struggle. Indeed, this work could one day be nicknamed along the lines of String Quartet No. 3 – the “Dark Journeys” quartet.”^[6]

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