Lan Cao

Cao Than Lan

Lan (first name) was born 1987 in Hanoi, Vietnam. She works in the fields of contemporary instrumental and electronic music, sound art and music theatre. 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, but recently she has focused mostly on her own compositions and sound installations, experimenting with modular synthesizers, amplified objects, prepared marxophone/zither, low-tech electronics, etc.

Active as a sound artist, improviser, composer in Berlin, Vienna and Cologne in many different projects, notably the composer-performer Duo Siedl/Cao – in collaboration with Gregor Siedl, she has been touring and giving workshops for contemporary music and improvisation in Europe, Japan, Brasil, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Her works have been released on labels Impakt, Flaming Pines, Off Record, Acefalo Records and Syrphe. She has performed at experimental music festival such as Emittermicro Berlin, Flux Festival Berlin, Brechtfestival Augsburg, FIME festival for experimental music in Sao Paulo Brazil, Strom festival Cologne, Festival Frischzelle Cologne, Sonic Territories Vienna, etc.
Also active as a guest pianist/performer of Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin (KNM Ensemble), 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.