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The American Academy in Rome has named Oswald Huýnh (Mizzou Master of Music in Composition, 2022) as laureate of the Frederic A Juilliard | Walter Damrosch Rome Prize in Musical Composition.
According to the organization, the Rome Prize is “a rigorous competition supporting innovative fellows in the arts, humanities, and sciences, offering artists and scholars the time, space setting, and colleagues to explore and create in the singular city of Rome.”
Huýnh is one of 35 recipients who will reside at the Academy’s 11-acre grounds in the Eternal City for five to ten months, starting this September.
Rome Prize winners are selected annually by juries of distinguished artists and scholars through a national competition. This year’s competition received 990 applications from applicants in 44 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 17 different countries. The acceptance rate was 3.54 percent. Recipients range from 28 to 71 years old, with an average age of 45.
“I am incredibly honored and humbled to receive the Frederic A Juilliard | Walter Damrosch Rome Prize,” Huýnh says. “It is an accolade I never thought would be possible for me. In addition to having the luxury to completely focus on my music, I am looking forward to the potential interdisciplinary collaborations with my fellow artists and scholars in Rome.”
Of his time at Mizzou, Huýnh said, “Mizzou provided me the time, opportunities, and training to truly develop my compositional voice. I am deeply indebted to my mentors who encouraged and provided me the space to experiment with my sound.”
Previous Rome Prize winners with Mizzou music ties include Igor Santos, a 2018 MICF Resident Composer, who was selected in 2022; and Christopher Stark, a 2015 MICF Resident Composer, who was selected in 2023.
Huỳnh is a Vietnamese American composer whose music navigates aesthetics and tradition, language and translation, and the relationship between heritage and identity. His work is characterized by intricate contrasts of timbre and interweaving textures that are rooted in narrative, culture, and memory.
Huỳnh served as Composer-in-Residence with the Louisville Orchestra (2024/25) and Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra (2023–2025). With performances across North America, Europe, and Asia, he has collaborated with artists such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, North Carolina Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Composers Orchestra, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, Akropolis Reed Quintet, Music From Copland House, Tacet(i) Ensemble, Trio Sheliak, Quatuor Bozzini, Del Sol String Quartet, [Switch~ Ensemble], Fear No Music, IU New Music Ensemble, Nefelibata New Music Collective, deaf rabbit duo, Li-Chin Li, Megan Ihnen, Payton MacDonald, Yoshiaki Onishi, Leo Schlaifer, and more. He is the winner of the Luigi Nono International Composition Prize, New England Philharmonic Call for Scores Competition, Musiqa Emerging Composer Commission, IPO Classical Evolve Composer Competition, Black Bayou Composition Award, and has received recognition from the New York Youth Symphony, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Society of Composers, and ASCAP.
For more information on the American Academy in Rome and the Rome Prize, visit aarome.org/apply/rome-prize
For more information on Oswald Huýnh, visit oswaldhuynh.com/
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