Music talents cant earn their living by music

Music talents cant earn their living by music

Vietnam is losing music talents because they cant live by music in Vietnam, said conductor Nguyen Thieu Hoa, Chairman of the Composition Theory Faculty, Hanoi Conservatory of Music.

In 1975, Saigon music fans just knew songs by Pham Duy, Trinh Cong Son, etc. Classical music was something very distant, in Paris, Rome. But 150 members of the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra surprised Saigon intellectuals with their successful performances.

Several decades have passed. The country living standards have improved a lot but classical music seems to have not developed much, while according to conductor Nguyen Thieu Hoa, classical music is the face of music of each nation.

What do you think about classical music in Vietnam?

Classical music is still a high class and scholarly music genre, so it doesnt gain the attention of the masses. It is similar in other countries but certainly, the volume of audiences of classical music overseas is higher than in Vietnam. Classical music is their traditional music but in Vietnam, folk music like Tuong, Cheo is traditional music.

You have said that professional, well-trained musicians should be the face of Vietnamese music, not pop musicians. Is that viewpoint too extreme?

Absolutely not. Classical music is in some ways a common language of the whole world. Young music (pop) is currently produced en masse. Anybody can write this kind of music, which has nonsensical words. It is dangerous that we hear this kind of music very often so we accept it very quickly and easily. That diminishes our musical taste.

We previously had conditions to develop classical music so why it is so dim in Vietnam now?

We had advantages in our relationships with regional countries: our close relations with the former USSR, a powerful country for classical music, which helped professionally train many music talents for Vietnam. The Tchaikovsky Music Institute trained leading music experts and professors for Vietnam, but it is a pity that we have lost them.

Our current music life has little aesthetic value. It is also a pity that well-trained persons, leading People Artists, are pursuing cheap aesthetic trends. Recently a rich artist organised a live show to perform his own trivial works and many People Artists who were trained systematically in the former USSR came to perform. I think that they made themselves cheap.

It also reflects our music level. Around ten years ago, Vietnam had the highest level of classical music in Southeast Asia. We might have been inferior to Singapore only, but now Thailand outdoes us and they invite American and Russian experts to teach their students, not Vietnamese experts.

Thailand annual Concours is organised very professionally and internationally and the awards are valuable. Last year we held our first Concours in over ten years but it was not very good. We have lagged behind the countries which were our students in the past.

You wonder about the loss of music talents, but why has it happened?

A bandsman has to study for over ten years in school, but when he is out of college he cant find a job or his job cant maintain him or his family, so the number of music students will be less and we cant discover real music talents.

Studying music is a long, costly and hard process. Music is now what someone studies when they cant study something else. They have to study music. For that reason, music doesnt have good, talented inputs while in music, talent is extremely important.

Brain-drain in music is a fact in Vietnam. Most music talents who are trained abroad dont return home because they cant live by music in Vietnam.

Thailand recruits Vietnamese bandsmen and pays them at least $1,000/month, but in Vietnam it is less than $100. We have trained classical music players for half a century but it is a waste. It is a matter of policy.

What are sources of income for symphony orchestras and classical music players?

Still the state budget. But the state is a mother who has a lot of children so she cant take care of all of them. The panorama of professional music is gloomy. There is an orchestra that pays each bandsman VND20,000/one hour of practice. In several months they have a performance and several days of practice.

How can we help classical music survive?

If the state doesnt pay attention, we will gradually lose music talents. The generation of people who were trained in the former USSR will be lost in oblivion with time and after that our professional music will downgrade.

To heat up the life of classical music, there is only one way: let it live! We have to organise concerts often to create a habit of enjoying classical music among the public.

Let help the audience be familiar with listening to symphony music. We have created a bad habit for them by organising just several concerts a year and delivering free-of-charge tickets. They are familiar with going to free concerts. Let get them buying tickets.

I believe that if we organise concerts often, the audience will buy tickets and they will have the habit of buying tickets.