Conny Zhao is a musician, independent researcher, and multimedia artist based in New York City. She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in Music and Culture and New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a master’s degree in music, theatre, and multimedia.

A vocalist and composer, Conny specializes in traditional Mongolian long-song (urtyn duu) while drawing inspiration and techniques from a wide variety of genres. While she performs traditional music, Conny also hopes to incorporate long-song as an extended vocal technique in new, experimental works of music and theatre. During her time at NYU she studied composition with Dr. Jerica Oblak and Joan LaBarbara. Conny’s most recent musical projects include building upon the artistic portion of her master’s thesis immersive multimedia musical about the queens of Chinggis Khaan’s empire and writing an EP inspired by ecosystems of the world.

As an interdisciplinary multimedia artist, Conny often focuses on underrepresented groups, how they interact with and exist within their surroundings, and their cultural and historical relationships to place. She created The Urtyn Duu Project, an interactive archive that aims to give Mongolian long-song singers a platform to showcase their traditions through videos, audio, photographs, and interview transcriptions. Her photo series titled A Place to Land was displayed in a solo exhibition at the Emporium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Conny’s work as a researcher examines the music of multiple ethnic groups of China and Mongolia, though her specialty lies in her musical interest of long-song performance practices. Her research areas include vocal technique and vocality, art practice as research, identity and performance, and cultural rights.

She has presented her research at conferences including the Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, and has given talks as an invited speaker at the Sharq Taronolari International World Music Festival in Samarkand, Uzbekistan and the Mongolia Society in Bloomington, Indiana.

Conny’s artistic and academic work has been funded by Fulbright, the American Center of Mongolian Studies, New York University, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Arts and Culture Alliance, and the W.K. McClure Scholarship.

In her spare time, Conny enjoys playing with her cockatiel, admiring her painted turtle, cooking and developing recipes, collecting vintage clothing and home decor, traveling, watching a good magical girl anime, and obsessively making lists.