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."

 

Recent solo engagements include performances of violin concertos by Bach, Barber, Bruch, Faure, Sibelius, Valentini, Vivaldi, and Zhanhao He/Gang Chen, Concerto Grosso No. 1 by Schnittke, Double Concertos by Brahms and Mendelssohn, Triple Concerto by Beethoven, Sinfonia Concertante for Four Violins by Maurer, and the music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Saint-Saens, and John Williams with the Symphony Orchestras of Plano, Richardson, San Angelo, and Wichita Falls, and the University of North Texas Baroque Orchestra (USA), the Sun Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra (Taiwan), and the Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra, HBSO Symphony Orchestra, Sun Symphony Orchestra, Vietnam Classical Players and Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra (Vietnam). Conductors under whom Chuong has performed as a soloist include Clay Couturiaux, Hector Guzman, and David Itkin (USA), Kalle Kuusava (Finland), Nathalie Marin and Olivier Ochanine (France), Paul Leenhouts (Holland), Wojciech Czepiel (Poland), Christopher Zimmerman (UK), Honna Tetsuji (Japan), Fouad Fakhouri (Lebanon), Ai Kuang Sun (Taiwan), and Fi Fi Le (Vietnam-Macedonia), among others.

 

An avid chamber musician, Chuong has been heard at Festival Internacional de Música do Pará and Enflama Festival (Brazil), Boston Early Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, Texas Music Festival, Vietnam Connection Music Festival, and HBSO's Autumn Melodies Art Festival as well as at concert series such as Fine Art Chamber Players, Live at Dallas Steinway Hall, Mélange Musical, and Chamber Music International. Notable collaborators in concerto and chamber music performances include violinists Stephanie Chase, Nai-Yuan Hu, Kyung Sun Lee, Cynthia Roberts, and Vilmos Szabadi, violist Susan Dubois, cellist Eugene Osadchy, double bassist Jeff Bradetich, pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer, and 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 HBSO Symphony Orchestra, performing the violin concertos by Barber and Sibelius at the special concerts to celebrate 20 years of Vietnam – U.S. diplomatic relationship and 100 years of Finland's Independence Day, respectively.

 

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 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 Houston Chamber Choir, Mercury Baroque, Orchestra of New Spain, Texas Camerata, and Ensemble Fantasmi.

 

Chuong Vu holds a bachelor and master degree from the University of Houston, a graduate artist certificate and 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 recently were accepted into music programs at Indiana University, Eastman School of Music, University of North Texas, University of Houston, and Columbia University. His students have been prize-winners of national and international music competitions. 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, 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).

 

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