• About Jeff von der Schmidt, the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble & LA International New Music Festival

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

~ A blog about new music, travel and food

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

Tag Archives: Song Hong Ensemble

An Old Quarter Debut for the Hanoi New Music Ensemble

06 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Composers, Cong CaPhe, Contemporary Music, Food, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Kim Ngoc Tran, LA International New Music Festival, Manzi Art Space, Music, Song Hong Ensemble, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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Ambassador Ted Osius, Asia, Cong Caphe, Dang Hong Anh, Danh Huu Phuc, Do Nhuan, DomDom, Geir Johnson, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Kim Ngoc Tran, Los Angeles International New Music Festival, Manzi Art Space, Nguyen Minh Nhat, Old Quarter Cultural Center in Hanoi, Pham Truong Son, Song Hong Ensemble, Vietnam, VNSO String Quartet, Vu Nhat Tan

A typical Old Quarter transaction.

A typical Old Quarter transaction.

If I were asked to put my impressions of the Vietnamese on the back of a business card, I’d probably settle on “the most resourceful people on Earth.” My friends there have a way of tunneling under, going around, slicing through, or soaring above any and all situations life throws in their way. Sometimes they do these things simultaneously, which makes working in Vietnam always interesting.

Before I was approached to be an official artistic advisor and conductor to the Hanoi New Music Ensemble, I was made aware of many new developments in the performing arts infrastructure in Hanoi. But one report, of a new cultural center smack in the heart of the intoxicating Old Quarter, helped me go from interested to YES!

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Sound Dreams in Los Angeles

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Cambodia, Carlos Chavez, Composers, Contemporary Music, Elliott Carter, Evan Hughes, John Cage, Kyoto, LA International New Music Festival, Latin Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, Mexico, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Bruce Weigl, Cambodia, Carlos Chavez, David Letterman, Elliott Carter, Gabriela Ortiz, Grammy Awards, John Cage, LA International New Music Festival, Mineko Grimmer, Nieuw Ensemble, Song Hong Ensemble, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Unsuk Chin, Vietnam War, Vu Nhat Tan, William Kraft

East meets West in Los Angeles.

East meets West in Los Angeles as violist Do Huong Tra My of Hanoi tries Cafecito Organico at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

David Letterman, the revered American comic who has been keeping us up late at night for over 30 years here in the United States, revealed the two components of a good joke. To be funny the joke has to be 1) Obvious and 2) Stupid. Say all the words right and you can cue laughter.

If you are already one of my 4500 blog readers in 80 countries, you know I don’t see my LA International New Music Festival as an independent endeavor. So many ideas go into artistic decisions that adopting a single viewpoint is at the least annoying and at the worst dishonest. My thoughts and plots for the 2015 Festival continue apace, but for this post I thought I’d create an exposition of idea and concept behind the next installment.

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The Old Inn on the Green: Colonial Cuisine in New England

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Composers, Contemporary Music, Food, John Cage, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Ascending Dragon, Barry Lyndon, Berkshires, Herman Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nejaimes Liquor Store, New England, New Marlborough, Oliver Knussen, Song Hong Ensemble, Stanley Kubrick, The Last of the Mohicans, The Old Inn on the Green, Vu Nhat Tan

 

Twilight fog in New England.

Twilight fog in New England at The Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough.

There is an unescapable magic in the New England countryside of the Berkshire Hills in Western Massachusetts. The legendary fall foliage, the evanescent green of spring, the fireflies of summer, the winter white snow fall.

And this post is a story for my many curious and interested readers in over 80 countries around the globe. America is a complicated country, with huge frustrations, a complicated historical legacy concocted from British, French and Spanish colonial interests, and often maddening contradictions. There’s nothing like a good meal and a good book to help you start to understand a people and their country.

Do yourself a favor and make a reservation at The Old Inn on the Green.

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