ANU School of Music helps take Vietnamese traditional music to wider audience
Sydney's Golden Bamboo Ensemble, from left Le Phuong, Phong Phuand Minh Ha, are among the performers. Photo: https://vietmusicfest2015.wordpress.com/performers/
The first Vietnamese traditional Music festival to be held in Australia opens this Friday in Sydney, with an ANU School of Music academic at the helm.
Teaching Fellow Le-Tuyen Nguyen is the biennial festival’s artistic director and says he’s excited to be able to share his family’s musical heritage with a wider audience.
“The first two festivals were in Canada and the United States and featured mostly the Vietnamese diaspora,” Le-Tuyen says.
“This year I am trying to connect the festival with the wider community.”
He’s doing that in three ways, including by inviting academics from universities in Western Sydney and Melbourne to perform alongside more than 40 traditional musicians from around the world.
Academics will also present papers on topics including introducing younger generations to traditional music.
Le-Tuyen says the ANU School of Music has helped publicise the festival and request for papers, while Head of School, Professor Peter Tregear, has been invited to the opening ceremony this Friday.
He’ll give a speech on how the School’s community outreach is strengthened via this festival, Le-Tuyen adds.
The third way to broaden the festival’s audience is by recreating a cross-cultural music and dance collaboration from Paris in 1900.
“It was done 115 years ago at the Paris Exposition, when a French ballerina performed with traditional Vietnamese musicians and caused a sensation,” Le-Tuyen explains.
“This year, a Chilean-Australia dancer, Geraldine Balcazar, is recreating that dance and combining with traditional Vietnamese musicians.
“We’re also recreating the famous costume and stage designs from that performance in France.
“It’s an Australian journey – Vietnamese musicians travelled to France and practiced the dance and 115 years later, we’re recreating the dance on the other side of the world.”
Le-Tuyen says another highlight of the Beyond Tradition festival is recreating the music from 1900, with a performance of the first Western score of Vietnamese Tai tu music.
Performers this weekend are coming from several countries including Australia, Canada, France and Norway. Canberra is also represented. One of Lu-Tuyen’s former ANU students, Kat Alchin, is both a festival performer and its general secretary.