Tag Archives: Hong Kong New Music Ensemble

1,000 Dragons Rising: In the Path of the Ancestors Triumph for the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble

13 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by in Contemporary Music, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Minh Dam Quang, Music, Nguyen Thien Dao, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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The world premiere of Kim Thủy Hỏa by Vũ Nhật Tân.

”Bác Jeff!” breathlessly whispered one of my Vietnamese colleagues, hurriedly finding me back stage as we were all getting ready to perform. “We must wait to start the concert. We have over 1,000 people trying to find seats, more than the auditorium can handle. Uncle Jeff this never ever happen before!”

In the Path of the Ancestors indeed proved to be the right title at the right time for the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble. Post concert noise and chatter continues to flood the city’s cultural discussions while both Vietnamese national and international television networks can’t seem to get enough of me, resulting in very good media exposure for a new music group in its fourth season.

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In the Path of the Ancestors with the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble

21 Thursday Mar 2019

Posted by in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Composers, Contemporary Music, Hamburg, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Minh Dam Quang, Music, Nguyen Thien Dao, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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National treasures of Việt Nam, Thanh Hoài and Xuân Hoạch.

In the Path of the Ancestors is my next concert with the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble. My friends here always find wonderful and poetic titles for our programs, they can’t do otherwise. In a long career devoted to new music, conducting over forty world premieres, numerous recording sessions, securing commissions, animating second performances, planning tours and collaborations, this concert at 20h00 in the Grand Hall of the Việt Nam National Conservatory of Music on Friday March 22, 2019 still looms as a milestone.

Three generations of composers are coming together. My Hà Nội New Music Ensemble will be joined by a cast of national treasures, whiz-bang technology, guests from the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and the light bearing Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin/Đông Kinh Cổ Nhạc led by Đàm Quang Minh. Cue national and international television broadcast by the major network of Việt Nam, VTV1!

For a new music concert? For a new music group four years old? Yes. After thirty years of new music work in the United States, this Vietnamese recognition is, trust me, a genuine milestone.

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The Hà Nội New Music Ensemble 2018-19 Season Starts September 8

07 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Buddhism, Contemporary Music, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Igor Stravinsky, Manzi Art Space, Minh Dam Quang, Nguyen Minh Nhat, Nguyen Thien Dao, Ripieno Ensemble, Manila, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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Violinists Phạm Trường Sơn and Vũ Thị Khánh Linh.

I may be house sitting for a friend in San Francisco this September, but unlike Tony Bennett I’ve left my heart in Hà Nội, Việt Nam!

The opening concert of the 2018-19 season of the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble will get underway on Saturday September 8 at the Manzi Art Space at 8 PM. The first of five programs this season, the most ambitious we’ve planned, begins with a Composer Portrait concert of works for strings by Vũ Nhật Tân, entitled Màu Âm in Vietnamese, Shades of Sound in English, Couleurs des son in French, juxtaposed with ancient Vietnamese music from our friends in the Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin.

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Gongs & Bamboo: New Music from Hong Kong, Manila and Hà Nội

22 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Contemporary Music, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Ripieno Ensemble, Manila, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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Asian Ensemble Workshop in Hong Kong brings together Manila and Hà Nội.

The Asian Ensemble Workshop in Hong Kong is an inflection point, at least in foundation speak. In plain English this June 2018 workshop is the start of something big!

From June 22 to 24 and sponsored by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, these workshop meetings are discussing side-by-side projects deepening artistic connections between the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, the Ripieno Ensemble in Manila, and the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble. The goal is to get started with collaborative projects during the 2018 and 2019 seasons, building on the strengths of each city, formally establishing an international network between Hong Kong, the Philippines and Việt Nam.

In case you were wondering, this regional Southeast Asian network didn’t just fall from the sky fully formed in the last few days. And though Hong Kong is not officially in ASEAN, the city does function as a geographical fulcrum. A flight from Hà Nội is only about an hour, the same from Manila. I’m happy to provide some necessary background.

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Transfigured Schoenberg in Việt Nam

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Contemporary Music, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Laos, Nguyen Thien Dao, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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Rehearsing Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night in Hà Nội.

”I’m satisfied with what we’ve accomplished tonight,” I said to my hard working friends in the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble after two and half hours rehearsing the complexities of texture and harmony in Schoenberg’s epochal Transfigured Night. “Would like to go home early?”

”No,” came a unison answer. “Can we just take a break and keep working?”

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Thoughts on a Winter Moon with the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble

27 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Contemporary Music, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Nguyen Minh Nhat, Nguyen Thien Dao, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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A dreamy winter’s day in Hà Nội.

No matter how long the journey, the pattern of progress always returns to one step at a time. After spending the Christmas and New Year Holiday season at home in Pasadena, cooking up a lot of delicious storms and seeing scores of friends and neighbors, I’m excited to be back in Việt Nam for another extended residency with the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble, making each little step we take count towards achieving a world class ensemble in Southeast Asia.

And we all need a little help from our friends. In the case of my work with the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble, that means creating a collection of like minded people slowly chipping in from Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Paris, Kyoto, México City and Tokyo to offer help and guidance along the way.

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Finding Tambuco in Japan: “Are Those Bamboo Gamelans I Hear, Mr. Bond?”

12 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Buddhism, Contemporary Music, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Japan, Kyoto, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Uncategorized

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With Maki Takafuji at Sanzen-in Temple in Ohara.

”Jeff, it’s interesting, after all our projects together, that we are now talking here about music and culture in Onjuku, Japan,” said my friend Ricardo Gallardo of the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble during an early morning coffee looking out on the Pacific Ocean.

“You and Jan must meet my friend Maki Takafuji when you go to Kyoto. She lives there, teaches in Nagoya and is a great advocate for new music, and she commissioned Steve Reich for the famous Nagoya Marimbas.”

But before we get to Kyoto, I should to tell you about why Ricardo and I were talking on the Pacific coast of Japan in Onjuku.

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The New Music Gathering Asia with the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble

08 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Music, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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We’re always happy to be in Hong Kong!

My extended family nostalgia appears spontaneously as soon as I set foot in Hong Kong. When I was a little boy, a man named Harry Woo often watched me for my parents at our family restaurant at 2601 West Sixth Street in Los Angeles. Harry was their loyal dishwasher and short order cook. On what has, over time, become for me a fateful Saturday afternoon in the 1960s, he showed me a letter he was writing to his family in Hong Kong with his Cantonese calligraphy.

I’ve never recovered from that moment. Harry’s letter to his parents in Hong Kong written in Cantonese taught me the world was a bigger place than I’d ever imagined.

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