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Monday, 22/03/2010 09:36

Percussion festival hits Ha Noi

HA NOI — The second Cracking Bamboo music festival will kick-off at Ha Noi's Goethe Institute drawing about 60 musicians from around the world from today to April 3.

Cracking Bamboo aims to musically unify East and West, creating a platform for encounters between percussionists with modern European and traditional Asian instruments.

Meeting in Ha Noi will be musicians from China, Norway, Turkey, South Korea, Cambodia, Malaysia, Denmark, Switzerland, India, Canada, Spain, Indonesia, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Viet Nam.

The opening concert will be performed by the groups in the courtyard of the Goethe Institute, Ha Noi on today and tomorrow.

The musicians will work in three mixed ensemble groups to create new works during the two-week festival at the Viet Nam National Academy of Music (VNAM).

Directing the rehearsals are a number of artistic tutors, experienced in working on improvisation and co-operative projects, who have successfully demonstrated their ability to integrate diverse ensembles. They will be working with the participants to form the artistic backbone of the programme.

The musicians will be conducted by German Bernhard Wulff. He studied conducting, composition and percussion in Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

As a conductor, he has performed at concerts in Europe, South America, the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and in the US and Japan. During the past 20 years, he has acted as founder and artistic director of several ensembles of modern music including the Frankfurt-based Ensemble Modern, and the Switzerland-based Arcana, among others.

He is professor at the University of Music and artistic director of the Percussion Ensemble in Freiburg, Germany. He is a co-founder of Two Days and Two Nights of New Music festival in Ukraine; Roaring Hoofs festival in Mongolia; Golden Silk Sound Road in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan and Cracking Bamboo in Viet Nam.

Vietnamese musicians will be present in the form of percussion group Fireworks from the VNAM; six from HCM City and contemporary musician Kim Ngoc. These young artists will be given the opportunity to participate in a dialogue with musicians from other countries.

A concert will be performed at Ha Noi Opera House on Saturday and Sunday featuring a programme comprised of solo contributions, improvisation and short composition resulting from the working time of the groups. There will be a piece performed by all the musicians.

After Ha Noi, the groups will travel to Indonesia to perform and take part in musical exchanges. They will return to HCM City for a performance at the HCM City Conservatory on April 3.

The performances will begin at 8pm and be free of charge. Tickets can be picked up at the Goethe Institute in Ha Noi and in HCM City. — VNS


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