Chanda VanderHart is an American pianist, researcher, and musicologist based in Vienna, Austria. Her interdisciplinary work spans artistic research, musicology, gender studies, and performance, with a particular focus on song, digital musicology, and Musikvermittlung (music mediation)<ref>https://www.donau-uni.ac.at/de/universitaet/organisation/mitarbeiterinnen/person/4295358666</ref>.
Early Life and Education VanderHart earned a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music. She subsequently moved to Austria, where she pursued graduate studies in vocal coaching and accompaniment, studying with notable collaborative pianists including David Aronson, Julius Drake, Carolyn Hague, Kristin Okerlund, and Roger Vignoles <ref>https://iwk.mdw.ac.at/chanda-vanderhart/</ref>.
In 2016, she completed her PhD in musicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw). Her dissertation was titled 'Die Entwicklung des Kunstliedes im Wiener Konzertleben zwischen 1848 und 1897' (The Development of the Art Song in Vienn Concert Life between 1848 and 1897)<ref>https://www.mdw.ac.at/imi/abgeschlossene-dissertationen/</ref>. In 2023, she further qualified as a data steward from the University of Vienna<ref>https://postdoc-mug.com/chanda-vanderhart/</ref>.
Performance Career An active performer, VanderHart's career has included recitals and concerts at venues such as the Musikverein, the Volksoper, the Volkstheater and Porgy and Bess in Vienna, the Malmö Opera, the Banff Centre, Kala Mandir in Kolkata, and the City Recital Hall in Sydney<ref>https://chandavanderhart.com/about/</ref>
She is a co-founder of several interdisciplinary projects:
The interdisciplinary concert series 'Mosaïque'<ref>https://www.mosaique.eu.com/who</ref>. The multimedia storytelling platform 'Talespin, Musical Tales for Big and Small', which commissions new music and visual art to accompany global folktales<ref>https://talespin.info/</ref>. The podcast series on gender and song, 'Too Many Frocks'<ref>https://www.mdw.ac.at/imi/too-many-frocks/</ref>.
VanderHart performs regularly as both a pianist and an aerialist with the circus orchestra 'The Freestyle Orchestra'<ref>https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/995775/997970</ref>. She also records art song and chamber music, with a focus on works by forgotten composers<ref>https://repo.mdw.ac.at/projects/datasets/historical-song-recordings/audio/</ref>. Since 2013 she has worked as a music critic for the London-based publication Bachtrack<ref>https://bachtrack.com/de_DE/22/270/list-published/11169</ref>.
Research and Publications Vanderhart's research is broad and interdisciplinary, encompassing song history, artistic research, digital musicology, institutional critique, popular music, historically informed performance, and gender studies<ref>https://www.donau-uni.ac.at/de/universitaet/organisation/mitarbeiterinnen/person/4295358666</ref>. She publishes prolifically in both English and German.
Her publications include articles and contributions for academic institutions and publishers such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, SAGE, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg Centre for Popular Culture and Music, the Elfriede Jelinek-Forschungszentrum, and the Sorbonne<ref>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2055-273X</ref> <ref>https://mediaartscultures.academia.edu/ChandaVanderHart</ref>. She authored the lexicon article on Ernestine de Bauduin for MuGI (Musik und Gender im Internet)<ref>https://mugi.hfmt-hamburg.de/receive/mugi_person_00000049;jsessionid=B305CF3C7BFB476D72C69C28A25DDD4E?lang=de</ref>, and was head editor of the English edition of Robert Schumann and Heinrich Heine's Dichterliebe Op. 48, co-created with Rebecca Babb-Nelsen and Eric Stoklossa, titled The Poet's Love(r), which includes original poems from the female perspective.
Recording Work VanderHart's discography reflects her research interests, featuring both commercial albums and artistic research outputs. She has recorded art song and chamber music with a focus on historically informed performance, such as the first recording of Brahms' cello sonatas on a historical "Brahmsflügel," and on recovering marginalized composers, as heard in her recordings of works by Robert Fuchs.<ref>https://chandavanderhart.com/about/</ref> Her projects often involve interdisciplinary and scholarly approaches, exemplified by The Poet's Love(r), a re-interpretation of Schumann's Dichterliebe featuring a new English translation and spoken-word poetry from a female perspective.<ref>https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/995775/997970</ref> Her recordings contribute to digital musicology initiatives, including the "Art Song Augmented" project.<ref>https://www.artsongaugmented.org/</ref>
Academic Appointments VanderHart has maintained a continuous association with the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) since 2017 in a variety of research, performance, and teaching roles.<ref>https://iwk.mdw.ac.at/chanda-vanderhart/</ref> Her appointments at the mdw include Postdoctoral Researcher for the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project "Signature Sound Vienna" at the Department of Music Acoustics, Lecturer in the Department of Musicology and Performance Studies, and Senior Artist for vocal coaching at the Antonio Salieri Institute.<ref>https://iwk.mdw.ac.at/chanda-vanderhart/</ref><ref>https://maestramusic.org/profile/chanda-rae-vanderhart/</ref>.
Since 2025, she has additionally held a Senior Researcher position at the Center for Applied Music Research at the University for Continuing Education Krems, working on the project "Composing Change. Orchestral Impact in European Societies."<ref>https://www.donau-uni.ac.at/de/universitaet/organisation/mitarbeiterinnen/person/4295358666</ref> She is in demand as a public speaker and science to public communicator, lectures regularly internationally, and is a regular guest in radio programs, round table forums, and podium discussions.<ref>https://www.donau-uni.ac.at/de/universitaet/fakultaeten/bildung-kunst-architektur/departments/kunst-kulturwissenschaften/news-veranstaltungen/news/2025/radiokolleg-wiener-walzer0.html</ref>
This category currently contains no pages or media.
