Concert features multimedia artist

HÀ NỘI — Contemporary artist Lương Huệ Trinh will play electronic music to introduce her compositions to Vietnamese audiences on March 16.

Entitled Vệt (Streak), the concert will feature five pieces by Trinh which she composed during for a course at the Hamburg University of Music & Drama in 2018.

“The compositions are my thoughts on women in society,” said Trinh at a press conference held at the Hà Nội Goethe Institute recently.

“The influence of feudalism and Confucianism on women. This is my observation from the outside and from the inside as a woman.

“In the past, women and their children did not live for themselves. They were strictly bound by conventions, obligations and responsibilities. Today the influence of Confucianism in family and social relationships is somewhat blurred, especially in the younger generations. However, there are still things that are deeply ingrained in the subconscious of Vietnamese people but not removed by modern feelings and ways of thinking.”

The concert will combine traditional instruments and electronic sounds with photographs, videos and texts to narrate these complex relations filled with loneliness and torment.

Ten other artists will perform at the concert including percussionists Max Riefer and Kyle Acuncius; vocalist Dattie Do; Vietnamese đàn bầu (monochord) musician Ngô Trà My and đàn tranh (16-chord zither) musician Mai Lê. The artists will be led by Grammy-winning conductor Jeff Von Der Schmidt.

Trinh graduated in jazz keyboard at the Việt Nam National Academy of Music. She engaged in electronic music which has become her mainstay in 2010. She won a German Academic Exchange Service scholarship for the New Technique in Composition.

Her works have been broadcast in many countries such as Australia, the Czech Republic, India and Britain, and highlighted by Artist of the Month on StillStream Radio, US. She made the soundtrack for audio-book Wenjack for disabled people, by The National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS), Toronto.

Illusions, her first album, was on the list of the Best of 2016 – Albums of The Year by Avant Music News, US. Early this year, Trinh co-operated with stage director Trần Lực in the absurd play The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesco at the French Cultural Centre (L’Espace) in Hà Nội.

Streak is a part of a programme launched by the Goethe Institute. The event will run until April 27 in Hà Nội. The concert will begin at 8pm at 24 Tràng Tiền Street with free entrance. — VNS