Chicago Classical Review: Viet Cuong’s energetic music in the spotlight at Northwestern

Review by Katherine Buzard | Nov 15, 2025

Northwestern University’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble teamed up with acclaimed Chicago-based ensembles Third Coast Percussion, Eighth Blackbird, and ~Nois Quartet for a program showcasing the work of Viet Cuong on Friday night. The concert, titled “Vital Currents: The Music of Viet Cuong,” kicked off a weekend recording project of the Vietnamese-American composer’s work.

As Robert Taylor, Northwestern’s director of bands, noted in his opening remarks, the concert was a celebration not only of Cuong’s music but also of the excellence of the Bienen School of Music, as the program at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall brought together prominent new music groups in Chicago that are largely made up of Northwestern alums. 

Second Nature, featuring the ~Nois Quartet. Imitating complex electronic delay effects, the saxophone quartet plays each note four times to “capture the infectious exuberance of House music,” Cuong writes. This fiendishly difficult textural effect—executed impressively by ~Nois—provided sufficient differentiation from the rest of the program. Written as a means of getting out from underneath the pall of grief following his father’s death, Second Nature bubbled with joy.

The evening proved an exciting and intensely personal showcase of Cuong’s distinctive compositional voice while also spotlighting three major groups at the forefront of new music in America. Northwestern University should be applauded for this bold undertaking—the recording will surely be one to look out for.