Lan (first name) was born 1987 in Hanoi, Vietnam. She is a multidisciplinary artist whose practices encompass composition, improvisation, performance and installation. She is the scholarship holder of Startstipendium 2018 from the Austrian Federal Chancellery. She was trained as a classical contemporary music pianist in Köln (with Pierre-Laurent Aimard) and Brussels. With her recent transdisciplinary and sound art works, many of which incorporate site-specific sound installations and audience participation, she explores the (re-, de-)contextualisation, intentionality and un-intentionality, nature and artificiality, human and machine.
Active as a sound artist, composer and improviser in Vienna, Berlin and Hanoi in many different projects, notably the composer-performer Duo Siedl/Cao which received the award „New Austrian Sound of Music“ for 2 years 2018-2020. She has been touring and giving workshops for contemporary music and improvisation in Europe, Japan, Brasil, China, Taiwan, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Australia, Iran, Indonesia and Vietnam. Her works have been released on labels Moloko Plus, Impakt, InPolySons, Monsterk7, Ouidah, Attenuation Circuit, Syrphe, Flaming Pines, Off Record and Acefalo Records. She has performed at Ars Electronica Linz, Emittermicro Berlin, Flux Festival Berlin, Brechtfestival Augsburg, FIME festival for experimental music in Sao Paulo Brazil, Hanoi New Music Festival, Strom festival Cologne, Festival Frischzelle Cologne, PhonoFemme Vienna, Sonic Territories Vienna, etc.
She was the guest pianist/performer of Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin (KNM Ensemble) with whom she has performed at Ultraschall Festival Berlin, Musica Electronica Nova Wroclaw, Poesiefestival Berlin, etc. She has earned a wide range of solo and ensemble experience in contemporary music festivals namely Darmstadt Festival for new music, Festival Ircam Paris@Manifest and in festival academies such as Klangspuren – Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, Impuls Festival – Ensemble Klangforum Vienna, etc.
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Awards and grants
Awarded Startstipendium 2018 from the Austrian Federal Chancellery (BKA)
Duo Siedl/Cao ist selected for the renowned program New Austrian Sound of Music 2018-2019 (NASOM) from BMEIA in the category Contemporary Music
Grants for projects awarded from:
Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria Art and Culture, BMEIA Foreign Ministry Austria, Austrian Cultural Forums in Tokyo, Beijing, Brussels, Bangkok, Tehran and Warsaw, MICA- Austria, Art Foundation NRW, Ministry for Culture North Rhine-Westphalia, ON Neue Musik, RheinEnergie Foundation , Institut Francais, Goethe Institut.
Artistic Activities
2024 – new compositions for Green Wind Choir – premiered at Manzi Art Space – composer
2023 – Premiere of my composition – “Light 4” for sheng, dizi, piano, vibraphone – at the 6th Soundbridge Festival Malaysia – composer
2023 – Tour of the new music theater “Sand sand sand” by Siedl/Cao in Vietnam – composer, performer
2023 – Music for the art film “Hope-Memory Tree” (director: Ly Hoang Ly) – composer
2022 – Music for the feature film “Memento Mori – Earth” (director: Marcus Manh Cuong Vu) – composer
2021 – “Sur le fil” – interactive kinetic sound installation & shadow play – with duo Siedl/Cao: composer, musician
2020 – Music for the art film “Chronicle of an Extinction” (director: Micha Stuhlmann) – composer, musician
2019 – “Super Token” – live sound installation/music theater) – with duo Siedl/Cao: composer, musician. Appearances:
• Relincha Festival, Valdivia, Chile
• Acefalo Festival, Valparaiso, Chile
• Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
• Xarkis Festival, Cyprus
• Construction Festival, Dnipro, Ukraine
2018 – 2019 “The usual nexus” – performative sound installation for 2 performers, sensors, motors, lights, body movements, modular synthesizer, objects and midi algorithm – by Siedl/Cao
25 live performances of “The usual nexus”, among them:
• Shang Hai Ming Contemporary Art Museum MCAM, Shanghai, China
• Taipei Contemporary Art Center, Taiwan
• Krakow Center for Modern Art Solvay, Poland
• Design and Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
• 403 Art Space, Red Chair Theater, Wuhan, China
• Hanoi New Music Festival, Hanoi, Vietnam
• Factory Contemporary Art Vietnam
• Koganecho Residency, Yokohama, Japan
• Mohsen Gallery, a collaboration with Austrian Cultural Forum and Darbast Platform, Tehran, Iran
• Ausland Berlin, Germany
• Figya Art Space Osaka, Japan
• Chef-d’œuvre Osaka, Japan
• JapanRevisited202x a platform conceived by the Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo
• Dotolim Concert Series, Seoul, South Korea
2017 – Music theater „The fifth cardinal direction“ – for 4 performers, light & choreography – composer
• Operadagen Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• Musiktheatertagen Vienna, Austria
• Hanoi Opera House, Vietnam
Other installation, electro-acoustic works at Festivals
- From 2015 to 2019 worked as guest pianist/performer at Ensemble KNM (Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin) with performances at Ultraschall Festival, Festival Musica Electronica Nova, Poesiefestival Berlin, Galeriewanderung Berlin, RadialSystem V Berlin, etc.
- “Disembodied letters” – at PhonoFemme Festival, Vienna, Austria
- “Radio Cloud” by Siedl/Cao – at Äquidistanz Festival, Vienna, Austria
- “Radio Cloud” by Siedl/Cao – at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Astria
- “Meeting” – electroacoustic compostion, Heroines of Sound Festival 2018, Berlin, Germany
- Cao/Keller/Siedl – at Serious Series Festival, Berlin, Germany
- Kriegsingen at Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, Germany
- “Zicla” by Siedl/Cao – at Filharmonia Festival at Cultural Center Jazovia, Gliwice, Poland
- “Zicla” by Siedl/Cao – at Festiwal Muzykofilia 3: ars elektronika, Poland
- “Baggage” – at (re)Shaping Jazz to come, co-composed with Liz Kosack at Ausland Berlin
- “short pieces for piano and feedback” – Emitter Micro Festival Berlin
- Brechtfestival Augsburg – with Olaf Rupp and Rudi Fischerlehner
- “Luftkörperchen” sound installation – at Sonic Territories Festival for Sound Art and Exploratory Music, Vienna, Austria
- “iamb” – at FLUX Festival, Spektrum, Berlin, Germany
- “Parallel Asteroid” by Siedl/Cao – at FIME Festival for experimental music in Sao Paulo Brazil
- “Osmosis” project – at STROM Festival Köln
- “Osmosis” project – at Festival Frischzelle
- Festival Ankunft Neue Musik Berlin
- Festival Kölner Musik Nacht
- „Pierrot Lunaire“ by A. Schönberg – International Kamermuziek Festival Schiermonnikoog
Residency Programmes
- EMS in Stockholm
- Xarkis in Cyprus
- Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts in Taipei
- CheLa in Buenos Aires.
Film Music projects
- Memento Mori: Earth (selected among 10 titles for New Currents of the Busan International Film Festival) – Co-compostion with Gregor Siedl
- Chronik eines Aussterbens – co-composition with Beat Keller and Gregor Siedl
Music Release on labels
- Impakt label – album “Klankbeeldje” with compositions and co-compositions from duo Mono.Ext for extended snare drum and piano
- Moloko Plus label – album “Optimistic Modernism” by Seidel/Cao/Siedl
- Flaming Pines – “Humanized” by Siedl/Cao
- Acefalo Records – “Microconcierto” by Alvarez/Siedl/Cao
- Syrphe label – “Meeting” – an electro-acoustic composition
- Off Record Label – “Zicla” compositions for clarinet and zither – by Siedl/Cao
- Attenuation Circuit label – album “Modulus of resilience” by Cao/Keller/Siedl
- InPolySons and Monsterk7 – “Emanglonous “– by Siedl/Cao, for the compilation « Imaginary instruments »
Participation as pianist at Festivals and Academies for Contemporary Music from 2011-2017
- Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 2016, studied with Nicolas Hodges
- Impuls Festival Graz 2013, studied with with Ian Pace and Ensemble Klangforum Wien
- Festival Ircam Paris@Manifest 2012, studied with Sebastien Vichard from Ensemble Intercontemporain
- Klangspuren Festival im IEMA Ensemble 2011, studied with Ensemble Modern Frankfurt
Featured in radio/television broadcast
- Acousmatic composition „Triptych No.3 – Wafitere“is selected and featured at Women in Sound Festival, Goldsmiths University, England
- Radio broadcast of composition „V – Construction“ on Sonic Darts Radio Show on Resonance FM, England
- Interview and live radio broadcast on Suara Surabaya, Indonesia
- Interviews and Television/Radio broadcasts on Vietnamese national stations such as VTV1, VTV3, VTV4, VOV3, etc.
Co-founder/member of Projects/Bands
- Siedl/Cao: a composer-performer, sound artist group
- Osmosis Project
- Junk Orbit
- Mono Ext.
- Swiss Army Wife
- Cao Keller Siedl
Prizes at piano competitions
- Gold Prize at the ASIA Intl. Piano Festival and Competition in South Korea
- Second Prize at the National Autumn Competition (Concours d’Automne)
- 3rd Prize at the International Carl Filtsch Competition in Romania 2012
- Special Prize at the International Piano Competition in Hanoi 2010
Teaching experiences
Forming a group with Gregor Siedl, Cao Thanh Lan has given workshops on sound art, transdisciplinary art, contemporary music composition and improvisation at:
- Monash University Melbourne, Australia
- BoxHill Institute Melbourne, Australia
- Sungshin University, Seoul, South Korea
- National University of Hsinchu Taiwan
- Äänen Lumo Helsinki, Finland
- Universidad de La Serena, Chile
- Escuela de Artes Musicales & Sonoras UACH (Universidad Austral de Chile)
- Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music, Bangkok, Thailand
- Pranksit University – Conservatory of music, Bangkok, Thailand
- Universidad de Montevideo, Uruguay
- Meridian Space Beijing, China
- Pertemuan Musik Jakarta, at SAE Institute, Indonesia
- Pertemuan Musik Surabaya, at Goethe Institute Surabaya,
- Indonesia
- Indonesian Institute of The Art Yogyakarta, Indonesia
- Mentoring Program & Residency “Shape of sound” – Domdom Center for experimental art, Vietnam
Education and Grants
2012-2014
Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln
Master of New Music in the class of Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Experimental Improvisation in the class of Paulo Alvares
Graduated Master of Music with Summa cum laude
2008 – 2012
Royal Conservatory of Brussels
Major in Classical Piano in the class of Boyan Vodenitcharov und Daniel Blumenthal
Contemporary Music and Improvisation Study with Dr. Bouckaert und Kris Defoort
Graduated Master of Music with Distinction
Graduated Bachelor of Music with Disctintion
The only receiver of merit-based scholarship from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.
Merit-based scholarships from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels for 2 consecutive years
Merit-based scholarships from the Vietnamese Government for 4 consecutive years
1996 – 2008
Major in Classical Piano at the Hanoi Conservatory
Baccalaureat in Classical Piano under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Tran Thu Ha and Nguyen Thi Lan
Annual merit-based scholarships from Hanoi Conservatory for 12 consecutive years
Stipendium vom Kumho Asiana Group for 1 year
Cao Thanh Lan 