sugar vendil epk

Sugar Vendil (she/they) is a composer, choreographer, pianist, and interdisciplinary artist who is forging new creative pathways as a second generation Filipinx American. She started her artistic life as a classical pianist, and after spending nearly a decade searching for her own voice, her practice evolved into making music and performances that integrate sound, movement, and unconventional approaches to the piano. She has a keyboard/synth duo, Vanity Project, with composer Trevor Gureckis. Vendil is based in Lenapehoking, known as Brooklyn, where she lives with her partner and toddler, who she hopes will pursue dance and volleyball but will not force him/them.

Vendil’s work germinates from a kinesthetic and improvisatory approach, drawn directly from lived experiences. Her sense of physicality and artistic autonomy is evident in her work, whether it is music, performance, or visual scores.

Vendil was awarded a 2022 NPN Creation Fund grant and 2021 MAP Fund grant to support Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia, which is being co-commissioned by Living Arts Tulsa, High Concept Labs, and National Sawdust. Antonym was a finalist for NEFA’s NTP Creation and Touring Fund.

Commissions include music for 3.1 Phillip Lim’s F/W 2024 show, Simple Tasks 2 on Jennifer Koh’s Grammy-award winning album Alone Together; a Chamber Music America commission to write for The Nouveau Classical Project; ETHEL’s Homebaked 2019, and ACF | Create. She scored films by Jih-E Peng’s May We Know Our Own Strength (2021) and GATHER (2023), both art films centered on works by visual artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, and The Rite of Spring (2024), written and directed by Nick Nocera. In early 2024, her visual scores were part of the National Arts Club’s 2020 Fellows group exhibition, Light, Line, and Sound. She showed two ink-on-paper scores, and trapunto etude (2024), a beaded and embroidered canvas score inspired by the art of Pacita Abad.

Vendil loves dancing and collaborating with other makers. She is part of Johnson’s Being Future Being and was a musical collaborator with treya lam for Marie Lloyd Paspe and Almasphere’s bumalik. Vendil composed the music for Phil Chan’s Ballet des Porcelaines in 2021, and premiered composer-saxophonist Darius Jones’ LawNOrder at The Stone and Being Caged in ICE at Roulette in 2018. This year, she is dancing in Adrienne Westwood’s [ ]. Residencies include JACK, BRIC, Crosstown Arts, Yaddo, Marble House Project, Summer Labs at National Sawdust, Avaloch Farm, Earthdance (E|MERGE Multidisciplinary Residency), Andrea Zittel’s A-Z West, and Arts Letters & Numbers.

Auto-bio, or how I got over my fear of composing| Detailed bio | Artist Statement
Contact/photo requests: booking [at] nouveauclassical.org

MUSIC

Praise for May We Know Our Own Strength
“…a force of nature.” - I CARE IF YOU LISTEN (2022 Editor’s Pick)

“…what tracks! Cinematic in scope…gorgeous music.” – Vital Weekly

“..transfixing vocalizations…Absolutely stunning.” - Foxy Digitalis

Late Bloomer is a set of pieces for piano, voice, and live electronics that collectively form a portrait of self-realization.
Piano and voice are looped and layered. This video shares the first 4 pieces; more compositions have recently been completed, totaling 9 (~60 min program).

Videos - dance & interdisciplinary

Upcoming dates

January 11, 2025: Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia - Pentacle Tour Ready Lab, New York City Center Studio 5, New York, NY
September 23-26, 2026: John Zorn’s The Stone

Selected Press

Connective Threads by Jasmine Dreame Wagner - story in BOMB

Classical Music’s Fashion Revolution - Interview on Lincoln Center’s The Score

5 Questions to Sugar Vendil on I care if you listen

Contact

booking [at] nouveauclassical.org