Viet Nam News
HA NOI — Pianists Tran Thi Tam Ngoc and Pham Quynh Trang of the May Piano Duo will perform a special concert next month at the French Cultural Centre, L’Espace, in central Ha Noi.
Known as one of the most talented chamber music groups in Viet Nam today, the duo’s performances are always welcomed by audiences of classical music. The pianists will perform on March 3 in a set that includes both two-piano pieces and four-handed piano playing – a form of performance popular in Europe in the late 18th century.
Formed in 2012, the duo has already had many successful performances in different concert halls in Ha Noi and HCM City.
Ngoc and Trang are both concert pianists and are faculty members at the Viet Nam Academy of Music. The duo performs a wide repertoire from classic to contemporary music.
Ngoc started playing piano at the age of four and enrolled in the Ha Noi Conservatory of Music. She has won many international competitions such as the Asian Chopin Piano Competition in Kuala Lumpur (2004) and the Boston Conservatory Piano solo and Chamber Music Honors Competition (2007, 2008 and 2009).
Ngoc has performed in public concerts and recitals in Viet Nam, Singapore, and the United States and has played with the Viet Nam National Symphony Orchestra, the Viet Nam National Opera Ballet Orchestra, the Ho Chi Minh Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera, the Korea New Prime Orchestra and the Munich Chamber Choir. She has performed under the baton of Yasuo Shinozaki (Japan), Philipp Amelung (German), Lim Jun Oh (South Korea), Olga Gabi, Chan Tze Law and Adrian Tan (Singapore), Graham Sutcliffe (England) and Nguyen Thieu Hoa (Viet Nam).
Trang started piano at six years old and has also worked as a piano teacher at Ha Noi Conservatory of Music. She has performed Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin with the Ha Noi Opera and Ballet Theatre and chamber music programmes with the Viet Nam Symphony Orchestra.
Trang was the accompanist for contenders who won the first, second and third place prizes at Concour for Violin in Jakarta, Indonesia. Trang is a touring member of the Song Hong Chamber Group.
She has performed in exchange culture events with viola player Nobuko Imai and violinist Ryu Goto. She just finished an advanced certificate programme at Franz Liszt Hochschule fur Musik in Weimar, Germany. While there, Trang performed with European artists at many concert halls. — VNS