Home Page
Religious News
CAO DAI YOUTH ORCHESTRA AT THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018 IN SAIGON - VIETNAM

CAO DAI YOUTH ORCHESTRA AT THE INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2018 IN SAIGON - VIETNAM

Updated 2018-12-12 01:02:32

(Saigon November 29, 2018 – Written by An Tu and Nhon Quang – Photos by Huu loi, Phu Vinh and Van Hoang)

The Cao Dai youth at the Cao Dai Saigon Congregation in HCM City has received an invitation from the Organizing Committee of "Vietnamese Traiditional Music Instruments Performing Competition and International Folk Music Festival" to participate and show its performances at the Conservatory Music of Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Du street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City on the 27 and 29 November 2018.

"The Vietnamese Traditional Music Instruments Performing Competition and the International Folk Music Festival" is the first program organized at the HCM City Conservatory Music by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Conservatory Music of HCM City. This Festival is held every two years.

Guests at the Festival on the opening night include:

- Mr. Jeong Woo In - Deputy Consul General of Korea in HCM City

- Mr. Raja Hanizam - Deputy Consul General of Malaysia in HCM City

- Mr. Piotr Harasimowicz – Head of the Office of Investment and Trade with Poland in Vietnam

- Mr. Narong Prangcharoen - Principal Music School Mahidol University - Thailand

For the Conservatory Music of HCM City there is the presence of:

- Professor Ta Quang Dong - Director of Conservatory Music of HCM City

- Prof. Hoang Ngoc Long - Deputy Director of Conservatory Music of HCM City

Participants to the Festival and the Competition include artists from Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Mongolia, USA, Poland, Republic of Cuba, Republic of Ghana, Republic of Mauritius, as well as sponsors, representatives of central and local media.

The program of the Festival is as follows :

Solo Contest – Performance show of International Music Instruments. There are 4 Groups:

- Group A: For applicants aged 12 and under (11 candidates, minimum 5 years old)

- Group B: for applicants from 13 to 17 years old (15 candidates)

- Group C: for applicants aged 18 years and over (38 candidates)

- Group D: for Orchestra (4 groups with 34 candidates)

The four Orchestras in Group D are:

-Hue Folk Music Academy

-Thanh Thien-Hue Senior High School

- HCM City Institute of Music - Group No. 1

- HCM City Institute of Music - Group No. 2 - Cao Dai Orchestra (Received the Second Prize).

Specifically, Mr. Nguyen Van An, a member youth of the District 5-Saigon Religious Choir of Cao Dai Congregation and a student at the Conservatory Music of HCM City, discussed with his teacher, Professor Dr. Bui Thien Hoang Quan, about the Cao Dai Youth participation and competition. He was then asked to organize an orchestra of Caodai music to take part in the Festival Competition. Mr. An successfully assembled a group of Cao Dai young people who are part of the religious choir of the Cao Dai Saigon temple. Besides his Congregation, An reached out to other Congregations to find other talented young musical performers to join the Orchestra.

On November 29, 1818, the Festival and Competition of Vietnamese Folk Songs took place with other orchestras from all over the country. The Saigon Cao Dai Youth Orchestra performed the following songs: "Xuan - Ai (Caodaism); Bai Ha - Thet - Ngu Cung - Tan Thuc" which astonished the judges who for the first time listened to the religious music of Cao Dai. Thus, the music culture of the Cao Dai Tay Ninh Holy See in particular and the music of the Vietnamese culture in general was preserved and promoted to Viet Nam and to the whole world.

Please click here to view the video of the show filmed by Caodai TV:

http://caodai.com.vn/en/gallerydetail/cdtv-85-nhac-le-cao-dai-tai-lien-hoan-am-nhac-dan-toc-quoc-te.html

With the support and encouragement of Bishop Sang, Chief Representative of Cao Dai Tay Ninh Holy See in Ho Chi Minh City and the Cao Dai Congregation of Saigon District 5, the Cao Dai Youth Orchestra with the white robe uniform instilled a sense of cultural beauty of Vietnam in general and of the Cao Dai religion in particular. Thanks to this performance, the national audience as well as the international delegation throughout the program now know that Cao Dai has sacred music that has both Vietnamese nationality and cultural characteristics.

Hopefully,in a near future, it would be a great honor to the Cao Dai Youth Orchestra if it could perform at the many International Conferences organized by Cao Dai friends such as Oomoto in Japan, Daesoon Jinrihoe in Korea, Tao Yuan and Weixin Shengjiao in Taiwan.

Here are a few pictures of the Festival :