Violinist Do Phuong Nhi, special talent

Around 2007, I heard Professor Ngo Van Thanh (at that time he was not yet a People's Artist) tell me about a very talented girl named Do Phuong Nhi. Ngo Van Thanh is a very famous violinist, his words carry a lot of weight, if he praises her then it must be outstanding. Then, I heard Conductor Tesuiji Honna say the same thing, so I spent a lot of time with Do Phuong Nhi...

Child prodigy

Born in 1998, Nhi lived in the musical cradle of her family. Nhi's toy was her mother's guitar, Nhi did not play around but knew how to listen to melodies from a very young age. Her parents saw that she had talent so they let her learn to play the guitar at the age of 4 and Nhi's first teacher was Professor Ngo Van Thanh, a talented, dedicated and very methodical teacher... At the age of 11, Do Phuong Nhi performed difficult works such as Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor with the Vietnam Symphony Orchestra (DN) under the direction of conductor Honna Tetsuji at the Hanoi Opera House. When attending a masterclass with Professor Stephan Barratt-Due, Nhi's playing made a strong impression on him. After that, Nhi was invited to perform with young European talents at the Valdres Summer Festival and Hardanger Festival (Norway). That outstanding talent helped Do Phuong Nhi receive a scholarship from MIC – Transposition to study at the Barratt-Due School of Music under the guidance of violinist Stephan Barratt – Due and other artists such as Sigyn Fossness and Alf Richard Kraggerud.

In the Toyota Concert held in Hanoi in 2015, Nhi from Norway was invited to perform Tchaikovsky's Concerto in D major, Op. 35 for violin. That same year, Do Phuong Nhi won the "Sparre Olsen" competition for young talents in Gjovik, Norway.

In 2017, Phuong Nhi was the music ambassador of Valdres Summer festival.

Toyota Concert Tour is always a highly anticipated program and a selective program for soloists for famous concertos, Do Phuong Nhi is invited many times. Nhi has also performed solo with many world companies including: Romerike Symphony Company (Norway), Fort Collins Symphony Company (USA)... Nhi has performed excellently many violin concertos by world genius musicians of different periods...

I am also very lucky, never missed a performance of Do Phuong Nhi in Hanoi. Listening to Nhi play, I see that the public calling Nhi a Vietnamese musical prodigy is not wrong. Not only attracting listeners in big programs, with orchestra, but also in trios (Do Phuong Nhi - violin, Nguyen Viet Trung - piano, Tran Hong Nhung - cello, all three studied abroad at world-famous conservatories, guided by famous artists and of similar age), they also make the audience extremely excited.

The man who sits for hours writing music

Most recently, I listened to a whole Fspressiv classsic world tour Concert program of Do Phuong Nhi and Nguyen Thai Ha (pianist), and I found Nhi more and more worthy. After the period of strong instinctive playing, good technique but still innocent and pure, Do Phuong Nhi's playing is now deep, rational but still rich in emotion, her performance style is very classy...

To know more about Do Phuong Nhi, please listen to our story:

When did Nhi finish her studies in Norway and what degree did she get?

- Yes, I will graduate with a master's degree in performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music in June 2022.

Although classical music in our country has focused on improving the performance level of orchestras and the public's ability to perceive it for many years, there are people who "cross the threshold" like Nhi who have chosen to stay in the environment that gave birth to it, have more colleagues and more audiences who understand it better, so that they can have a bigger position and better income. What about Nhi?

- Yes, that's right, classical music is closely linked to traditional culture, a long-standing historical value in the West. For Norway, having an orchestra like the Oslo Philharmonic is also a source of national pride. A rich and developed country, a country that is able to attract talent, invite famous conductors like Klaus Mäkelä, and play the most difficult works in music history every week... I also think that if I stay, I will learn more, develop more... My friends and colleagues are used to working with me, my lifestyle in Norway, my contributions have been recognized, my friends say that I bring honor to Norway in my performances... But I haven't had a visa to stay. It's also a blessing that I decided to stay home. I integrated very quickly into my homeland, and I'm very happy to return to work with my uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters in the Vietnam Orchestra.

Nhi can play many pieces from difficult to very difficult, but if she likes and puts the most emotion into them, which pieces does Nhi choose?

- Maybe because I have listened to all different genres of music since I was little, so even if I participate in a program that plays all difficult symphonies (like Bartok, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Mahler, Shostakovich...), I will really like to dig deep and go into research, read the score, listen, and practice until dawn. I really like the challenge of difficult music, and I will find every way to play that music well. When playing pop music, folk music (Europe), I will be more relaxed, more adventurous, and I improvise a lot. Currently, I like Gustav Mahler's 5th Symphony the most, because of the resonance of all the instruments in the grand theater, and Mahler himself was a great conductor, had great influence, he was very romantic, delicate, and had a deep soul.

As a very individualistic person, Nhi also arranges and arranges music. What emotions does that bring to Nhi and how much of her time does it take up?

- Right now I'm still playing the piano full-time, so I'm... like Mahler, whose main job is conducting an orchestra, and I've never finished sketching out the outline of my first symphony (laughs). I wrote it for myself first to see if I really have the ability to become a composer. The pieces I've arranged are quite basic in technique, with open harmonies. Or recently my younger brother asked me to write the background music, arrange or co-compose some of his songs...

Usually I will sit for hours writing music until it's finished, because if I stop, I will lose the flow of ideas to transform emotions into sound ideas.

What about composing music?

-Yes. I'm trying and I really like it. The songs I've completed include the collection "circles" (loops in life) written in 2022, I've recorded some demos of songs I'll improvise, whichever song is good and I like, I'll take it out and play it gradually. Or the piece "Vjolahz - a nightmare for violin, cello, and 6 violas, Opus No. 1, inspired by orchestras, I think the viola group is always very interesting and cool, so they deserve a separate piece to play together and (giggle), these are the songs I like. I also wrote some small songs to play at cute parties. Mostly I record the melodies I think of in my phone, and then one fine day I'll complete them.

Beautiful and talented, Nhi, what do you think about your future?

- I want to be a good musician, inspire my soul, and hopefully inspire the world around me.

Yesterday, Nhi performed so well. Besides technique, emotion and talent, can we talk a little about Nhi's guitar? Its "sound" is so good?

- I thank you, a busy person with many creative abilities in different art forms, for taking the time to listen to me play. About the instrument, I would like to tell you: Once when I was out in Philadelphia, fate brought me to an old shop, there was a piano that fascinated me. It was not as famous as Stradivarius, but it had personality, like a person with a singing voice, graceful, and loved to sing, I immediately wanted to have it and make it playable/meet all musical possibilities. Tulip (I named it) was born in 1899 by one of the members of the Bernadel family, and was played by a concertmaster in Philly in the 1970s...

The story is long, about my parents, about my younger brother, all talented people in the art of violin, but let me stop here for now, to tell the rest in the next post. Thank you very much Do Phuong Nhi.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/violinist-do-phuong-nhi-tai-nang-dac-biet-10290843.html