About

Press Kit

Biography

JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung has a unique talent for combining idiosyncratic textures and styles into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. NPR calls her “one of today’s most eclectic composers,” and The Philadelphia Inquirer praises her “stunningly original compositional voice.” 

Fung continues to elevate her reputation for artistic ingenuity, with recent collaborations expanding how we experience her music. Her powerful song cycle Lamenting Earth premiered in 2024 with Nicholas Phan, Jasper String Quartet, and Myra Huang.  Centering around poet Claire Wahmanholm’s prize-winning poem “O,” the 20-minute cycle reflects the fragile state of the earth’s environment.  This work has been recorded by the performers to be released on Earth Day, April 22, 2026.  Ominous, commissioned and premiered by Grossman Ensemble and conductor Jeffrey Meyer in 2024, portrays the composer’s experience with her mother’s recent diagnosis of dementia through punctuations, pitch bends, and murmurings across the 13-member work. 

Fung’s 2025/2026 premieres begin in October 2025 with a new work for string quartet and poet, as part of Del Sol Quartet’s project Facing the Moon: Songs of Diaspora, featuring the poetry of San Francisco-based Jenny Lim.  In collaboration with Sandbox Percussion and Kristin Lee, Fung is writing a new Concerto for Violin and Four Percussionists for Sandbox and Lee’s U.S. tour this spring 2026.  Fung will write a new work for Ensemble for These Times to include homemade percussion for Haruka Fujii.  Continued partnerships include Fung’s first opera, My Family//Cambodia, 1975 with librettist Royce Vavrek; Girl from the 905, a new song cycle with Vavrek and soprano Andrea Núñez; and a new work for violin and electronics to be premiered in early 2027, based on a recent fieldwork trip to Guizhou, China with violinist Nancy Zhou.

The 2025/2026 season includes many performances of Fung’s orchestral and chamber music across the U.S. and Canada - her calendar contains the latest updates.  Some highlights include Earworms, which opens the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra season; Violin Concerto No. 1 with Kristin Lee, opening the Eugene Symphony season; Parade with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra; and Frenetic Memories with Seattle Symphony musicians.  Fung’s String Quartet No. 5: “Spiraling,” part of Katarina String Quartet’s current season, will be recorded by the group in 2026.  

Fung’s music can be heard on a number of professional albums, most recently “Glimpses” on Australian pianist Andrea Lam’s album Piano Diary; “Trumpet Concerto” on the Çedille Records album Storyteller: Contemporary Concertos for Trumpet, performed by Mary Elizabeth Bowden and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra; and Insects & Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung, a portrait album featuring Fung’s first four string quartets performed by the Jasper String Quartet.  The last album won the 2025 Chamber Music America award for Album of the Year.

A recipient of numerous grants and awards, Fung received a 2025 JUNO Nomination for “Classical Composition of the Year” for String Quartet No. 4; the 2013 JUNO Award for “Classical Composition of the Year” for Violin Concerto No. 1; a Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; and grants from NewMusicUSA, ASCAP, MAP Fund, American Composers Forum, and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and served on the board of the American Composers Forum. 

Many distinguished artists and ensembles around the world have embraced Fung’s music as part of their core repertoire, including the Chicago Sinfonietta, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Philharmonie de Paris, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada), Vancouver Symphony, Zürcher Kammerorchester, San José Chamber Orchestra, American String Quartet, and Metropolis Ensemble, to name a few.  Conductors with whom she has collaborated include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Alexander Shelley, Rebecca Tong, Peter Oundjian, Cristian Măcelaru, Mei-Ann Chen, Gemma New, Andrew Cyr, Rei Hotoda, Barbara Day Turner, Marie Jacquot, Steven Schick, and Bramwell Tovey.  

Passionate about fostering the talent of the next generation, Fung has mentored young composers in programs at the Juilliard School, Graham Sommer Competition, Alba Music Festival, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. She has been a guest educator at many organizations, including the Mostly Modern Summer Music Festival, SUNY Fredonia, and Luna Composition Lab.

Born in Edmonton, Canada, Fung began her composition studies with composer Violet Archer and received her doctorate from The Juilliard School in New York.  She currently lives in California with her husband Charles Boudreau, their son Julian, and their dog Coco. Learn more at www.vivianfung.ca.