Den Haag

Ngô Hồng Quang is a Vietnamese traditional musician from Hanoi presently based in Den Haag, Holland. After being a teacher at Hanoi Conservatory of music for traditional music, he moved to the Netherlands to study composition at the Royal Academy of Music Netherlands in Den Haag. His multiple talents can be heard on vocals, including multiphonics & harmonic; Dan Nhi, two-string fiddle, Dan Bau or mono chord, a unique Vietnamese one-string instrument played with bent harmonics with a very vocal haunting sound, instruments from the ethnic minorities from Vietnam like Dan K’ny, fiddle with vocal resonator (like an acoustic vocoder); Dan Moi or Jews Harp (with which he delivers sounds that listeners could never imagine possible on such small & simple instrument).

Quang is a great symbol of what I call “the traditional musicians from today”, those virtuosos from elsewhere who learnt, carry & embody the tradition of their country at its best, but they’re young, starving to open & share their identity with the whole world. They learn from the western world without denying their past. Modernity doesn’t replace tradition, but brings tradition to a new level of liveliness. Ngô Hồng Quang is working and performing between Vietnam and Europe. His most recent shows in Vietnam include: Nón (ft. dancer Vũ Ngọc Khải), 2016; Hà Nội Duo (with artist Nguyên Lê), 2017.