FOLK MUSIC OF VIETNAM

San Jose, CA, August 24, 2001: The Association for Viet Arts will present Dr. Tran Quang Hai, a renowned ethnomusicologist, musician and composer, and his wife Bach Yen in a program of FOLK MUSIC OF VIETNAM on Friday, October 5, 2001 at 8pm as part of the Performing Arts Series (PAS) at Downtown San Jose’s Montgomery Theater. The performance series celebrates the diverse range of cultures that co-exist and blend in the Bay Area by showcasing different kinds of cultural specific performing arts.

Tran Quang Hai comes from a family of five generations of musicians and he is the son of a well-known folk musician Prof./Dr. Trân Van Khê. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Saigon before coming to France in 1961. Dr. Hai has honorary doctorates from the International University Foundation and the Albert Einstein International Academy. Since 1966, he has given over 2,500 concerts in 50 countries. He plays 15 musical instruments and is known for improving the technique of spoon playing and of the Jew's Harp. In 1970, since he found a key to the technique of overtone singing, he has been considered the greatest specialist in overtone singing in the world. He was the co-producer, principal actor, and score composer for the film "Le Chant des Harmoniques" (The Song of Harmonics). Dr. Hai is a recording artist on LPs and CDs and he also has written numerous articles on Vietnamese and Asian music such as in New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, Encyclopedia Universalis, etc. He is currently an ethnomusicologist at Paris' Musee de l’Homme. To see his web site, please check:

  www.phapviet.com/tranquanghai
     or
  www.tranquanghai.net

Bach Yen, a popular Vietnamese pop and folk singer, was born in the Mekong Delta, in South Vietnam and went to Paris in 1961. She has appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and on other television shows with American celebrities such as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Mike Douglas and many others. She has performed in 46 different states in the US and numerous other countries with artists like Frankie Avalon and Liberace.

Tran Quang Hai & Bach Yen's concert program will feature lullabies from 3 regions of Vietnam, alternate love songs, work songs, sung poetry. They will give solo performances of 16 stringed zither dan tranh, 2 stringed fiddle dan nhi, coin clappers sinh tien, spoons muơng, and Jew's harp dan mơi.

Tickets are $12, $15, and $18 and are available for purchase directly through the Association for Viet Arts or tickets.com. AVA also offers limited honor tickets of $25 including a reception with the artists.

Photographs available upon request.

The Folk Music of Vietnam program has been made possible by generous grants from the City of San Jose, the Arts Council Silicon Valley and the California Arts Council.