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 newest orchestral work, America the Beautiful?, commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music invites listeners to contemplate democracy and the current reality of the United States. 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.

Fung’s 2026/2027 season includes 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, and a new orchestral work co-commissioned by The Juilliard School and the National Orchestral Institute and Festival. Continued partnerships include Fung’s first opera, My Family//Cambodia, 1975 with librettist Royce Vavrek and Girl from the 905, a new song cycle with Vavrek and soprano Andrea Núñez on growing up in a multicultural family in Markham, Ontario.  Fung’s upcoming season also includes continued tour performances of Goddess//Insect with Sandbox Percussion and Kristin Lee. 

Performance highlights from Fung’s upcoming season include Parade, with Victoria Symphony, Wichita Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony; Aqua performed by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Dust Devils with Colorado Symphony Orchestra; Pizzicato with Boulder Philharmonic and Edmonton Symphony; String Quartet No. 4 “Insects and Machines” by members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra;  Earworms, with Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra; and String Sinfonietta, performed by Liberty High School Camerata Orchestra at the 2026 Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Festival. Her calendar contains a full list of orchestra and chamber music performances across the globe.

Fung’s music can be heard on a number of professional albums, most recently “Lamenting Earth,” on Nicholas Phan and Jasper String Quartet’s album of the same title; “Glimpses” on Australian pianist Andrea Lam’s album Piano Diary; 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, and Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra’s Inaugural Composer Workshop. 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.