Chris Brown and Vân-Ánh Võ

Chris Brown, composer, pianist, and electronic musician, creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles. Collaboration and improvisation are consistent themes in his work, as well as the invention and performance of new electronic instruments and software. Brown’s fascination with instrument building led to the design of computer network systems that interact with other computers and musicians connected through the internet.

Brown is a founding member of The HUB, the pioneering network music ensemble, and has composed many interactive works for the percussionist William Winant (Iconicities, New World Records.) His trio with Winant and saxophonist Frank Gratkowski were featured on the 2009 Donaueschingen Musiktage. Brown is a featured composer, performer, and/or producer on over 30 recordings of new music on labels including Tzadik, Pogus, Intakt, Rastascan, Ecstatic Peace, Red Toucan, SIRR, Leo, and Artifact Recordings.

Since 1990, he has taught at Mills College in Oakland, where he is Professor of Music and Co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music.

Artist's website: cbmuse.com

Master multi-instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ composes and performs music for the đàn tranh zither and the đàn bầu monochord, as well as other traditional Vietnamese instruments. She began studying đàn tranh at the age of four. Graduating with distinction from the Vietnam Academy of Music, Võ won the championship title in the Vietnam National Đàn Tranh Competition in 1995, and became an ensemble member of Vietnam National Music Theatre as well as a member of the traditional music group Đồng Nội Ensemble, which she founded and directed. She has since performed and toured in more than fourteen countries, recording many broadcast programs in and out of Vietnam.

Võ has presented her music at Carnegie Hall, Zellerbach Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and as a composer and guest artist for Kronos Quartet at the Olympic Games 2012 Music Festival. She received a 2009 Emmy Award for the soundtrack to the documentary Bolinao 52 and was an Academy Award nominee for the 2003 documentary Daughter from Danang. Võ’s third album, Three-Mountain Pass, featuring Kronos Quartet, was released on Innova Recordings in 2013.

In 2016 she premiered The Odyssey: From Vietnam to America, a 40-minute multimedia work inspired by the epic journey of the “boat people” fleeing Vietnam in the late 1970s. Performed by the Vân-Ánh Võ Quartet, The Odyssey integrated traditional and modern instruments, electronics, video, field recordings, and interviews with survivors.

Võ lives and teaches traditional Vietnamese instruments in Fremont, California.

Artist's website: vananhvo.com