Dang Chau Anh has been a choir conductor for more than 10 years, and she desires to bring Vietnamese music to a higher level. She works hard at her job maintaining the children's choir of the Viet Nam National Academy of Music (VNAM), which is the only one of its kind in the nation. Here she talks about the difficulties of her work.
How did you come to music? And why did you choose choir music, which is not very popular in Viet Nam?
I began studying music at VNAM at the age of 10. I studied piano, music theory and choir conducting over the course of about 15 years. I'm now a teacher and in charge of the children's choir of VNAM.
When I decided to set up a children's choir, I knew that it would be difficult, as it is a very rare thing here. But developing the children's choir was my way to try to socialise the music. I want Vietnamese people to better understand and to become familiar with academic music.
Did you face many difficulties at first?
Obviously, difficulties cannot be avoided. Normally, a choir needs dozens to hundreds of people. My choir has about 40-50 members, all aged seven to 15.
It's very difficult to draw children who are talented and passionate about this kind of music, as they cannot be in the choir full time. They have to go to school. Moreover, they will not take part in the choir when they are grown up, which means that I'll always have to train new ones.
Sometimes I have to convince their parents because they don't want them to take part in my choir. The choir has three or four scales, or sometimes five or six scales that are arranged in the academic style.
At the beginning, I used my money for performance costumes and travel fees. It's better now because we have a sponsorship, though it is not very much. I would have been defeated a long time ago if I didn't love my job and the children so much.
Music pieces for choirs are very rare. How do you find your songs?
In the beginning, the choir sang songs that were mostly adapted from folklore, like Bac Kim Thang, Ly Ngua O, Ru Em, Donna, Scarborough Fair and Child of the Universe.
Very few Vietnamese musicians are interested in writing music for choirs. I have to try to compile songs and write Vietnamese words for foreign songs.
You've been established for a long time, but the choir is still not very well known. How confident are you that this will turn around?
We are proud because ours is the only choir to appear on stage at national events. However, the choir's development has not made progress for a long time. There are two reasons, one is that this music is too academic. The other is bad investments.
I'm very confident in our abilities. I always take advantage to catch opportunities to learn at training courses abroad. The choir and I have learned a lot from exchanges with other foreign choirs visiting Viet Nam, like the American Voices Without Borders Choir and the Australian Girls Choir.
Recently, we took part in a performance of the blog-opera Giai Dieu Cuoc Doi, which was the result of co-operation between Viet Nam and Sweden.
Do you think taking the bronze medal at the second Asian Choir Games last year in South Korea was a milestone for the choir?
I think so. My children sang three Vietnamese songs compiled by musician Hoang Luong, all from traditional folklore materials. The compositions and arrangements made a strong impression on the judges.
Taking the bronze medal for the folklore category went way beyond our expectations. We will try our best to get an even higher position at the World Choir Championships this year in China, as well as during our hosting of the event in 2011. — VNS