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Famous Vietnamese experimental musician Vu Nhat Tan dies at 50
  • | dtinews.vn | July 22, 2020 05:08 PM
Vietnamese famous composer of chamber and piano works, Vu Nhat Tan, has just died from cancer at the age of 50.



A file photo of composer Vu Nhat Tan.

Vu died on July 21 at a hospital in Hanoi after six months struggling with rectal cancer.

Sharing about Vu's death, composer Tran Xuan Hoa said this was a big loss for him.

"Vu is my teacher and my big friend," Tran said. "We had together participated in many projects and used to share the same ideas. I would always say yes to all his suggestions. I will miss him a lot."

Another musician, Nguyen Quang Long said that he was impressed by the way Vu Nhat Tan sought all kinds of sounds for his works.

"With Vu, all sounds in his surrounding living environment can become good materials for his music works," Long said. "So I wouldn't be surprised when seeing him recording music in a room with all windows wide open, or his paying attention to some working machine while walking on Hang Thiec Street. He was just collecting the sounds for his works."

Long said that although Vu's music has not been popular in Vietnam, he was still following it with all his mind and heart. And he has tried hard to introduce Vietnamese music to the world.

Born in 1970, Vu Nhat Tan was the composer of experimental orchestral/chamber/piano and electric/computer and multimedia works which have been performed in Asia, Europe and elsewhere including at the Roaring Hoofs Festival in Ulaanbaatar, and the Louisiana Festival of Contemporary Music in Baton Rouge.

Vu studied piano at the Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi, where he earned a certificate in 1987. He then studied composition and musicology there from 1991-95.

In 2000, Vu studied computer music and new music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne on a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.

In 2002, he studied composition with Chinary Ung at the University of California at San Diego in the US.

Vu had been presented with a third prize in the composition for traditional instruments competition of the Vietnam Composers Association in Hanoi and a first prize in the Saint-Germain-en-Laye competition. In 2002, he received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council which enabled him to research contemporary music and ethnomusicology in the US.

He is also active in electro/computer music and multimedia performances. His Pho, a description of the busy streets of Vietnam, was premiered during Ascending Dragon at the Hanoi Opera House in March 2010.

Vu was also a teacher of composition and musicology at the Vietnam National Academy of Music.

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