A new initiative to have different musical cultures, traditions, and different genres from different time periods converse with each other will kick off in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City this week.
The Hanoi New Music Meeting 2009 takes place between October 15 and 20.
The contemporary music that will be on show develops out of western classical music, but facets not included in traditional classical music such as atonality, electronics, improvisation and interactivity with other forms of arts or with the audience.
Organizers describe Hanoi New Music Meeting 2009 as a forum as well as a stage for nearly 20 contemporary, traditional, classical and electronic composers and musicians from Vietnam, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Canada.
The exchange and contact among different musical spheres promises to generate surprising, rule-breaking pieces.
Initiated by musician and composer Kim Ngoc, with the sponsorship of five cultural organizations: Goethe-Institut (Germany), SIDA (Sweden), Cultural Development and Exchange Fund (Denmark), UNESCO Center For Cultural And Sport Development and the British Council, this is one of the pioneering events in Vietnam’s contemporary music scene.
It will help bring this nascent art form to a wider public.
The event is also a forerunner to the Hanoi New Music Festival, an annual event starting in 2010.
Organizers say the festival will help modernize educational programs for music students, establish an international network for Vietnam’s contemporary musicians, and build-up a long-term cooperation with internationally famous festivals and orchestras.
The festival will set up a system that fosters composers’ creativeness through commissions, creation of new products, organization of regular concerts, studio projects for electronic music and recording, releasing CDs – all of which aims to speed up the development of contemporary music in Vietnam.
Reported by Bao Anh