Category Archives: William Kraft

A New Generation: From Hamburg to Hà Nội with Lương Huệ Trinh

07 Thursday Mar 2019

Posted by in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Arnold Schoenberg, Composers, Contemporary Music, Elbphilharmonie, Gurrelieder, Hamburg, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, John Cage, Kent Nagano, Kim Ngoc Tran, Minh Dam Quang, Nguyen Minh Nhat, Nguyen Thien Dao, Ton That Tiet, Toru Takemitsu, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan, William Kraft

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Our first meeting at Public Coffee in the Neustadt District of Hamburg.

Nothing is random. In June of 2017, on our way to take in the conclusion of the opening season of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg with Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder conducted by our friend of over forty years, Kent Nagano, I noticed a Facebook post of a young Vietnamese student who was part of a team contributing a technology component to a Hamburg Staatsoper production of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Æneas.

That got my attention for all types of reasons! 

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The 25th Anniversary of the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble in México City

12 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by in Carlos Chavez, Colombia, Composers, Contemporary Music, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Japan, LA International New Music Festival, Latin Grammy Awards, Mexico, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Uncategorized, William Kraft

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Tambuco celebrates 25 years, with guest pianist Ana Gabriela Fernández.

“The spirit of percussion opens everything, even what was, so to speak, completely closed.” – John Cage

Ricardo Gallardo and I have been partners in new music projects for a long time. We got started because of an introduction by American icon William Kraft, have received four Grammy nominations for our collaborative CD recordings, Southwest Chamber Music toured México multiple times, at UNAM and in Guadalajara, Tambuco has come to Los Angeles multiple times, to both Herbert Zipper Hall at the Colburn School and REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall.

We’ve even tracked each other down in Japan!

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A Question of Continuity for the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble

12 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by in Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartók, Contemporary Music, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Igor Stravinsky, LA International New Music Festival, Music, Nguyen Minh Nhat, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Walt Disney Concert Hall, William Kraft

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Rehearsing a new quartet by 19 year old Nguyen Minh Nhat.

Rehearsing a new string quartet by 19 year old Nguyễn Minh Nhật.

The New York Times launched a series of articles the weekend of January 8 to focus attention on the Vietnam War, or from a different perspective, the American War we fought in Việt Nam. This season of bizarre political transition makes the series well timed for the American reader. The obligatory colon in the title sums it up. Vietnam: The War That Killed Trust. Before the first article begins, the editorial introduction states “the legacy of the war still shapes America, even if most of us are too young to remember it.”

And some us are old enough to remember it.

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