Oswald Huỳnh has been named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition.

The appointment was announced on April 14 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which selected 223 fellows across 55 disciplines through a competitive application process.

Huỳnh is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music degree in Composition in 2022 as part of the Mizzou New Music Initiative. His work explores themes of heritage, identity, and language, often through contrasting timbres and layered textures. His orchestral works have been performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and the North Carolina Symphony, while his chamber music has been presented by the Tacet(i) Ensemble, Del Sol String Quartet, and the Akropolis Reed Quintet.

He is the 2025–26 laureate of the Rome Prize in Musical Composition and has also received the CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Prize and the Luigi Nono International Composition Prize.  Huỳnh has also served as Composer-in-Residence with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra and the Louisville Orchestra.

As part of the fellowship period, he is expected to develop a new work for the Tacet(i) Ensemble.

He is represented by Concert Artists Guild, and his works are published by Boosey & Hawkes.

The Guggenheim Fellowship provides recipients with a stipend to support independent creative work.