California dreaming: Nguyen Tan Ton Nu Y Nhi from Hue will perform traditional Vietnamese music in the US. — VNS Photo Tran Thang

DA NANG (VNS)— Vietnamese and US artists will perform the traditional music of Viet Nam at eight Universities in the Northeastern US on November 14-23, director of the Institute for Vietnamese Culture and Education (IVCE), Tran Thang, told Viet Nam News yesterday.

Nguyen Tan Ton Nu Y Nhi from Hue, Khuong Van Cuong of Ha Noi City, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Khanh from HCM City, and from America, David Badagnani and professor Nguyen Thuyet Phong will tour to present a remarkable array of offerings including music, songs, dance, drama, costumes, and musical instruments.

The programme will include an irresistible combination of passion, colours, memories, and theatrical acts. The audience will have an opportunity to connect or reconnect with some of Viet Nam's most creative arts stemming from the Red (Hong) River, Huong (Perfume), and the Cuu Long (Mekong) River through both traditional and contemporary perspectives.

Phong, an artistic director and musician, is a world renowned performer and scholar of Vietnamese traditional music. He has given lectures and workshops throughout North America and the world on the music culture of Viet Nam over the past 40 years.

David Badagnani specialises in new and improvised music for the English horn and oboe, as well as a variety of wind, string, and world percussion instruments, primarily those from East and Southeast Asia.

He was a founding member of the avant-garde group Pointless Orchestra, and regularly performs with various ensembles such as the Irish, Australian, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, and American traditional ensemble.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Khanh is a recipient of the Artist of Merits Award from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Viet Nam for her contribution to the art of hat boi in southern Viet Nam.

In 1996, she set up her own Ngoc Khanh company of Hat Boi Theatre in HCM City.

Nguyen Tan Ton Nu Y Nhi, who emerges as a young Hue singer, is deeply involved in the tradition of ca Hue, the art songs of the former imperial city of Hue through her passionate zeal and crystalline purity of her voice.

Khuong Van Cuong is a singer and sao truc (bamboo flute) flutist performing hat xam (minstrel songs) – a rare genre which has just been revived in the last few years in northern Viet Nam.

The tour, which is organised by the IVCE, a non-profit organisation founded in New York in 2000, aims to raise awareness about Vietnamese culture and expanding the educational opportunities of Vietnamese students as well as promoting Vietnamese culture and education in the US and abroad.

Last year, IVCE also hosted short films from Viet Nam; the ao dai (Vietnamese traditional long dress) fashion show; the Dong Ho folk painting and calligraphy exhibition at colleges and universities in New York, Washington and California. — VNS