Born in 1987 Hanoi, Viet Nam into a music family, Cao Thanh Lan is a versatile musician encompassing a wide range of stylistic influences, with repertoire from classical to contemporary music and interdisciplinary works. She studied piano for 12 years at the Hanoi National Conservatory before receiving a full government scholarship to study at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where she earned both her Bachelor Degree and Master Degree with Distinction from the class of Boyan Vodenitcharov and Daniel Blumenthal. She graduated with highest score the Master of Contemporary Piano Music in the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in the class of Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
Being the prize winner of several national and international competitions namely the Gold Prize at the ASIA Intl. Piano Festival and Competition in South Korea and the Second Prize at the National Autumn Competition (Concours d’Automne). She has performed in South Korea, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, the Netherlands as soloist and as a chamber musician. She has worked with numerous composers including George Aperghis, George Benjamin, Peter Ablinger, Philippe Manoury, etc. and earned a wide range of ensemble experience in festivals namely Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik – with Nicolas Hodges, Festival Klangspuren with Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, Festival Ircam Paris@Manifest – with Sebastien Vichard (Ensemble Intercontemporain), Impuls Festival – with Ian Pace and Ensemble Klangforum Wien, and International Kamermuziek Festival Schiermonnikoog in the Netherlands, in Festival and Symposium for performing voice in Basel, Ultraschall Festival with Ensemble KNM Berlin, etc.
She is the only winner of merit-based scholarship from Deloitte Foundation in Belgium, of merit-based scholarships to pursue the prestigious International Lied Masterclasses Udo Reinemann. She also won the Berlin Schierse Stiftung 2016 with Trio Limina and held scholarships from the Kumho Asiana Group Foundation, from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the National Conservatory of Hanoi. She has played in masterclasses for such renowned musicians as Anton Kuerti, Andreas Weber, Adrian Brendel, Dang Thai Son, Michel Bourdoncle, etc. She has also received grants for cooperation projects from ON-New Music Cologne, Ministery of Culture in Nordrhein-Westfalen and Rhein-Energie Foundation, Federal Chancellery for Art and Culture from Austria, Department of Culture from Lower Austria, etc.
She also engages more and more in conceptual and free Improvisation, notably with project Osmosis at Strom Festival Cologne 2013, with Parallel Asteroid at FIME festival for experimental music in Sao Paulo Brazil, with Xeno Fox at Brech Festival Augsburg, with intermedial ensemble Auralisation at Festival Frischzelle Cologne, with the interdisciplinary ensemble Moment! at Festival Ankuft Neue Musik Berlin (Arrival of New Music Berlin), at Musiklabor concert series in Cologne and Festival Kölner Musik Nacht, solo piano at Stadtgarten Köln, Loft Köln and at Festival Ad Hoc Köln, etc. With the electro-acoustic duo Parallel Asteroid, she has been touring in Germany, Japan, China, United States and Brazil.
With the intention of starting a new music scene in Vietnam, she has cooperated wih DomDom Institute for experimental music and art to introduce contemporary music to young musicians in Vietnam. She was also featured on the National Radio VOV3, National TV channel VTV1 and the Vietnam Televisions’s international channel VTV4.
