Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong was born on September 8, 1990 in West Hills, California. His music has been described as “alluring” and “stirring” by The New York Times, and has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Eighth Blackbird, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sō Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Atlanta Symphony, Sandbox Percussion, Albany Symphony, PRISM Quartet, and Dallas Winds, Icarus Ensemble, among many others. According to his website (vietcuongmusic.com) he is currently the Pacific Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence and serves as Assistant Professor of Music Composition at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Cuong holds degrees from Princeton University (MFA/PhD), the Curtis Institute of Music (AD), and Peabody Conservatory (BM/MM). His Extra(ordinary) Fancy Concerto for Two Oboes was commissioned in 2019 by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra and is dedicated to oboists Robert Walker and Laura Arganbright.

The composer’s own program notes follow:

During the Baroque era the double oboe concerto was somewhat of a genre, especially among Italian composers. Alessandro Marcello wrote two, Antonio Vivaldi wrote four, and Tomaso Albinoni—who seemed really taken by oboe—wrote eight. Over the last few years, I too have grown to adore the instrument. In fact, I’ve become such an admirer of the oboe and other double reed instruments that in 2017 I wrote a piece for double reed sextet called Extra Fancy. The sextet is an exploration of “extra fancy” techniques that these instruments can produce, particularly multiphonics. Multiphonics are produced when the performer uses a technically incorrect fingering to create a distorted, complex sound with two or more pitches. Multiphonics can sound bizarre (if not foul) to some listeners, but I’ve always found them to be enchanting and, for lack of a better term, misunderstood.

Though the pieces don’t share any musical material, I think of Extra(ordinarily) Fancy as a bigger and better sequel to the sextet. In addition to . . . exploring the melodic potential of various multiphonics, the concerto also works as a whimsical exploration of duality; while one oboist is focused on sounding ordinarily fancy, the other oboist is determined to prove the extra fancy virtues of multiphonics. After a short Vivaldi-esque introduction that establishes the main melodic ideas of the piece, the oboists go at it. They mock each other, squawk at each other, and even talk over each other. The orchestra observes and joins in as the oboists continually bicker back and forth, all culminating in a reconciliation where the once-hesitant oboist learns (and even enthusiastically performs) a few multiphonics alongside the other oboist.

Program Note by David B. Levy/Viet Cuong, ©2025