People's Artist Quang Hai

HCM CITY (VNS)– People's Artist Quang Hai, who was the first person in the country to organise doctoral level programmes in music, passed away on Sunday. He was 79.

Hai, whose real name is Huynh Tan Sy, was born in 1935 in Tan Hoi Commune, Cai Lay District, in Tien Giang Province. He moved to the north in 1954 and was appointed by the government to study in Russia in 1956.

After graduating from the department of symphony orchestra and opera conducting at Leningrad Conservatory (now the St Petersburg Conservatory), Hai became a postgraduate student and received a PhD degree in music theory.

He was director of the Viet Nam Philharmonic Opera and Ballet in Ha Noi from 1970 to 1975, director of the HCM City Conservatory from 1975 to 1997, and then professor in 1991 and People's Artist in 1993.

He also choreographed two operas, one ballet, dozens of symphony programmes and performed many times in Viet Nam.

He composed music for 36 plays, cai luong (renovated opera), television drama, film and dance. He is also the author of 60 scientific works, essays and speeches. — VNS