The TNUA-organized sixth edition of the Vietnamese Traditional Music Festival featured forums, lectures, workshops and concerts in a three-day event that started on November 14.
Musicians from Vietnam, including Lê Thanh, Kim Uyên, Đỗ Phương Bảo, Nguyễn Thanh and Lục Phạm Quỳnh Nhi, were at the festival demonstrating the uniqueness of traditional Vietnamese musical instruments, its musical culture, and the traditional theatre “Hát bội.”
Kuo Tahsin, a Vietnamese Studies scholar from Taiwan, also shared his research results and experiences at the event.
The event was not just a showcase of traditional Vietnamese music, but also a bridge between traditional Vietnamese and Taiwanese music.
The festival was a biannual event, having taken place previously in Canada, the US, Australia and France.TNUA’s Department of Traditional Music was in charge of organizing the event in Taiwan this year, gathering its teachers and students, as well as traditional Vietnamese musical groups from Vietnam, the US, France, Canada and other countries.
Prof. Hsiu-Jen Jian, Chairperson of TNUA’s Department of Traditional Music, noted in her speech at the event’s opening ceremony that her department felt honored to be put in charge of arranging this year’s festival, which offered the Taiwanese audiences a good opportunity to better understand Vietnam’s traditional music and theatre.
Prof. Jian noted that since 2006, her department has organized many exchange activities concerning traditional Vietnamese music, including a master class of Vietnamese “độc huyền cầm” by Ms. Ngo Tuyet Mai in Taiwan in 2007, and summer visits by TNUA students to Vietnam in 2019 and 2022 to learn traditional Vietnamese music.
To welcome the guests attending the festival, the Department of Traditional Music also held a concert of traditional Taiwanese music on November 15.