Performers from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Japan, Republic of Korea and Vietnam are expected to participate in the second Asian Zither Festival in HCMC early September.

The participants will bring their best traditional music to the four-day festival, which aims to keep the music alive.

Several exhibitions and talks by music professors, including Tran Van Khe, will be held. Khe spent years researching the zither, a traditional multi-stringed instrument.

The zither is known as koto in Japan, kayagum and komungo in Korea and guzheng in Singapore.

Kayagum and komungo are played with the finger-tips while other zithers are played with plectrums.

In Vietnam, it is called dan tranh or dan thap luc (16-string zither).

Singapore’s guzheng is similar to Vietnam’s dan tranh, 16-string zither but it is larger and boasts between 18 and 21 cords.

The deep sounds of the kayagum are similar to that produced by Vietnam’s dan day (with a long neck and three strings, a distant cousin of the guitar) played in cheo (traditional opera).

The host country will highlight the festival with performances by young talents Nguyen Thi Hai Phuong, Pham Tra My and Nguyen Thi Hong Nga, who have all won top awards at local and international music competitions.

One of the country’s leading zitherists, Phuong won the first prize at the National Zither Festival in 1992, and now works as a music teacher at the city’s Music Conservatory.

Artists My and Nga come from the National Music Institute and the Hue Music Institute, both prestigious music schools.

The musicians will perform nha nhac (royal music), cheo and southern Vietnam’s tai tu traditional music. While nha nhac is originally from Hue City, cheo is popular in Northern provinces.

In 2000, Phuong and her colleagues opened the first Asian Zither Festival by playing the tai tu traditional piece Duyen Ky Ngo (Marvellous Encounter). Tai tu music has been popular in South Vietnam since the 19th century.

The four-day festival will begin on September 1 at the Lao Dong (Labour) Cultural House, 55B Nguyen Thi Minh Khai St, Dist 1. Seminars and exchange sessions will be held at the Conservatory of Music, 112 Nguyen Du St, Dist 1, HCMC.

                                                                                                (Source: VNA)