Hanoi will host its first experimental music festival from November 30 to December 8.
The Hanoi New Music Festival 2013 will feature more than 50 Vietnameseand international musicians from Britain, Germany, Italy, France andScandinavia. They will perform at different venues in the city.
In addition to electro-acoustic music, a range of contemporary chambermusic will be provided. Festival goers will also be able to watchinter-active music productions, improvisations, music installations andmusic theatre.
"It's not about importing Westernaesthetics, but about cross-cultural exchanges," said Stefan Osterjo,guitarist from Sweden.
"During courses with youngmusicians and students in and outside the Vietnam National Academy ofMusic, I've said that experimental music is not fixed, but somethingthat you can and should use for your own means," he said.
Festival founder and artistic director Kim Ngoc said experimentalmusic is a "blind spot" in the country's general music scene, so we usethe term as a title. She said "blind spot" is something that alwaysexists, like in traffic.
"To the outside world,Vietnam's contemporary arts remains unknown, thus, the event is anopportunity for local musicians," said the founder of Dom Dom, the Hubfor Experimental Music and Art.
"The festival offersideal platforms for artists to exchange, share and even argue so thatthey can produce the best finished products. It's a new approachharmonising with or erasing the border between contemporary andclassical music that originated in the West."
DomDom, which is organising the festival under the auspices of GoetheInstitute Vietnam, hopes that the festival will help Vietnam'scontemporary music grow stronger.
Ngoc said the festival will feature commissioned compositions by Vietnamese composers, a new form of music practice.
Ngoc herself will open the festival with a music and theatreperformance "What Makes The Spider Spin Her Web," which has beenperformed throughout the world. The piece is a popular line from an oldVietnamese folk song and is both a question and a lament.
Duo Camusi from Italy will play contemporary improvisations using voice, electronics and drums on Monday night at Zone 9.
An evening of percussion on December 5 will feature Burkhard Beins(Germany) and SISU group (Norway) in the New Meets Old at Tuoi Tre(Youth) Theatre.
The highlight of the festival willbe "Being Together" on December 8, a closing show featuring prominentmusic improvisers.
Addressing a recent pressconference, head of the Goethe Institute, Almuth Meyer-Zollitsch, saidthe festival aims to build an audience for the new music genre.
According to Zollitsch, the new music genre has three major characteristics.
"Musical instruments are not only used in traditional way but alsoto create surprising sounds. For instance, a cello can become apercussion insturment," she said. "There will always be surprisingthings happening at the concert because experimentation plays animportant role."
Organisers hope to place the event on Vietnam's annual festival agenda.-VNA
The Hanoi New Music Festival 2013 will feature more than 50 Vietnameseand international musicians from Britain, Germany, Italy, France andScandinavia. They will perform at different venues in the city.
In addition to electro-acoustic music, a range of contemporary chambermusic will be provided. Festival goers will also be able to watchinter-active music productions, improvisations, music installations andmusic theatre.
"It's not about importing Westernaesthetics, but about cross-cultural exchanges," said Stefan Osterjo,guitarist from Sweden.
"During courses with youngmusicians and students in and outside the Vietnam National Academy ofMusic, I've said that experimental music is not fixed, but somethingthat you can and should use for your own means," he said.
Festival founder and artistic director Kim Ngoc said experimentalmusic is a "blind spot" in the country's general music scene, so we usethe term as a title. She said "blind spot" is something that alwaysexists, like in traffic.
"To the outside world,Vietnam's contemporary arts remains unknown, thus, the event is anopportunity for local musicians," said the founder of Dom Dom, the Hubfor Experimental Music and Art.
"The festival offersideal platforms for artists to exchange, share and even argue so thatthey can produce the best finished products. It's a new approachharmonising with or erasing the border between contemporary andclassical music that originated in the West."
DomDom, which is organising the festival under the auspices of GoetheInstitute Vietnam, hopes that the festival will help Vietnam'scontemporary music grow stronger.
Ngoc said the festival will feature commissioned compositions by Vietnamese composers, a new form of music practice.
Ngoc herself will open the festival with a music and theatreperformance "What Makes The Spider Spin Her Web," which has beenperformed throughout the world. The piece is a popular line from an oldVietnamese folk song and is both a question and a lament.
Duo Camusi from Italy will play contemporary improvisations using voice, electronics and drums on Monday night at Zone 9.
An evening of percussion on December 5 will feature Burkhard Beins(Germany) and SISU group (Norway) in the New Meets Old at Tuoi Tre(Youth) Theatre.
The highlight of the festival willbe "Being Together" on December 8, a closing show featuring prominentmusic improvisers.
Addressing a recent pressconference, head of the Goethe Institute, Almuth Meyer-Zollitsch, saidthe festival aims to build an audience for the new music genre.
According to Zollitsch, the new music genre has three major characteristics.
"Musical instruments are not only used in traditional way but alsoto create surprising sounds. For instance, a cello can become apercussion insturment," she said. "There will always be surprisingthings happening at the concert because experimentation plays animportant role."
Organisers hope to place the event on Vietnam's annual festival agenda.-VNA
