Chanda Vander Hart, MA PhD

Chanda VanderHart is a pianist and interdisciplinary researcher based in Vienna. In her capacity as a musicologist, VanderHart is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Center for Applied Music Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems (Danube University) on the project 'Composing Change. Orchestral Impact in European Societies'.

She received a piano performance degree from the Eastman School of Music (B.M. 2000) and three graduate collaborative piano degrees, studying in Milan and Austria (dipl. 2006, MA 2006, post-MA perf. Dipl. 2012) with honors before completing a PhD in musicology from the mdw- University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in 2016 wíth the dissertation, “Die Entwicklung des Kunstliedes im Wiener Konzertleben zwischen 1848 und 1897.” A related monograph, Lieder & Performance in 19th Century Vienna; Concepts and Perspectives is under contract by Oxford University Press to be published with a series of historical recordings. 

She has recently completed a hybrid mini-monograph and a self-created digital repository. The book is forthcoming, with Routledge / Francis & Taylor and titled Accompaniment in America: Contextualizing Collaborative Piano while the digital repository contains complementary images, numerous tightly-edited audio interviews, data visualizations and -sets, as well as a host of related ephemery and source material: https://accompanimentinamerica.website/.

In her capacity as a musicologist, VanderHart is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Center for Applied Music Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems (Danube University) on the project 'Composing Change. Orchestral Impact in European Societies'. She was previously active in three different departments at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (mdw), as a post-doctoral researcher on the project Signature Sound Vienna in the Department of Music Acoustics - Wiener Klangstil, lecturer in the Department of Musicology and Performance Studies (IMI), and Senior Artist (Vokalkorrepetition) at the Antonio Salieri Institute for Vocal Pedagogy. She also co-designed and performed in salon reimaginings for the project Musical Crossroads -- Transatlantic Cultural Exchange 1800-1950, and worked as a research assistant on Wie Klingt Österreich, which explored politics and its utilization of music for identity creation in 20th century Austria.

Lecture/teaching invitations have included Oxford University, the Sorbonne, the Malta School of Music, the Institute for European Studies, the Kunst Universität (KUG), AIMS in Graz, and at the University for Music and Dance in Cologne. Her publications include articles for the ACM, Cambridge University Press, MDPI books, Sorbonne University and CIERA. She authored the lexicon article on Ernestine de Bauduin for MuGI (Musik und Gender im Internet) and has co-authored several multimedia expositions in Artistic Research in the Research Catalogue.

An international performance career has brought VanderHart to halls from the Musikverein, the Volksoper, the Volkstheater, the Schoenberg Center and Porgy and Bess in Vienna, to the Malmö Opera, the Banff Centre in Alberta, Kala Mandir in Kolkata, DeDoelen Concertgebouw in Rotterdam, City Recital Hall in Sydney, and throughout the Mediterranean on the cruise liner MS Europa. Her musical discography includes the first recording of Brahms cello sonatas on the historical "Brahmsflügel,” a double CD of Robert Fuchs compositions on fin de siècle Steinway, the first English language version of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe "The Poet's Love(r)" with tenor Eric Stoklossa as well as numerous recordings of marginalized late nineteenth-century song and chamber music composers, including for the Art Song Augmented initiative at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance.

VanderHart co-founded the multimedia children’s story-telling platform Talespin, Musical Tales for Big and Small, and the interdisciplinary concert series Mosaïque. She was musical director of the European chapter of Opera Moderne and the Hot Box Girls Jazz/Opera Burlesque shows, and performs regularly as pianist and aerialist with the circus ensemble The Freestyle Orchestra. Her award-winning podcast on accompaniment and gender, “Too Many Frocks,” with producer Bill Lloyd is now in its second season. A successful music critic, VanderHart has reviewed over 150 opera and concert productions for Bachtrack in London since 2013 as well as writing for The Metropolitan Opera On Demand and the Magazin der Wiener Staatsoper.