Internationlly acclaimed Dan Bau player, Pham Duc Thanh was born in Ninh Binh, Northern Vietnam,in 1956. Displaying a remarkable musical aptitude as a child, Duc Thanh was already playing the Dan Bau (monochord) as well as the Dan Tranh (16-string zither) and Dan Nhi (two- string fiddle) by the age of six. In 1974, Duc Thanh moved to Ha noi, where he studied at a popular traditional theatre school and joined the leading Hat cheo theatre group as a Dan Bau player. After attending Saigon’s Research Center for Music, he went on to become one of country’s top Dan Bau players of traditional and contemporary music.

In August 1990, Duc Thanh and his wife - singer Lieu Nguyet Lan - left Vietnam and went to Germany for several years before emigrating to Canada in 1996.

Today, the Montréal-based multi-instrumentalist is known as one of the word’s leading exponents of traditional Vietnamese music.

EDUCATION

1983:

University of Vietnamese Folk Music, Saigon

Diploma in folk music, with the monochord as a main instrument

Study of more than ten other Vietnamese instruments

1978:

School of Folk Music, Hanoi

Diploma in monochord

AWARDS AND BURSARIES

1984: First place, International Monochord Competition (Vietnam)

1983: First Prizewinner- monochord, University of Vietnamese Folk Music (Vietnam)

1978: First Prizewinner, School of Folk Music (Vietnam)