Grammy Award-winning American conductor Jeff von der Schmidt will lead the Hanoi New Music Ensemble in a concert at the Vietnam National Academy of Music on March 22, starting at 8 p.m.

The first day of rehearsal of the Hanoi New Music Ensemble's string section with advisor Jan Karlin (standing) - PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ORGANIZER

The concert, titled “On the Path of the Ancestors”, will open with “JIJI” by Luong Hue Trinh, who has recently come back to Hanoi after completing her studies in Hamburg, Germany. “JIJI” is dedicated to her teacher Georg Hadju and uses ancient dan tranh (16-chord zither) combined with symphonic and electronic instruments.

“JIJI” will be followed by “Tuyen Lua” by Nguyen Thien Dao, which was composed in the war year of 1968.

The event will end with the world premiere of “Metal Water Fire” with the poetry of Nguyen Duy and music of Vu Nhat Tan, combining soloist Tran Thu Thuy with the Hanoi New Music Ensemble and the Ancient Music Group of Tonkin.

This concert also marks a regional collaboration between the Hanoi New Music Ensemble and the HongKong New Music Ensemble with players Karina Yau and Chronicle Li coming to Hanoi from Hong Kong.

Jeff von der Schmidt was born in 1955 in Los Angeles, California. He is the founding Artistic Director of Southwest Chamber Music and the Los Angeles International New Music Festival.

Von der Schmidt won two Grammy Awards in 2003 and 2004 and has received a total of nine nominations for 30 compact disc recordings. He has conducted concerts nationally and internationally in Europe, the U.S., Mexico, Vietnam, and some other countries.

Born in 1970, Vu Nhat Tan is the composer of chamber and piano works which have been performed in Asia, Europe and elsewhere. He is currently teaching composition and musicology at the Vietnam National Academy of Music.

Born in 1985, Luong Hue Trinh graduated with honors in Jazz Keyboard at the Vietnam National Academy of Music. Since 2010 she has worked in electro-acoustic music, which has become her main musical focus today. From 2015 to 2018, she was awarded a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship for the program “New Technique in Composition” and finished her Master in Multimedia Composition under the guidance of Georg Hajdu and Elmar Lampson at the Hochschule für Musik & Theater Hamburg in Germany.

SGT