Award-winning musician Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ converses with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen about the evolution of Vietnamese music and her creation of a contemporary sound.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ is one of the finest performers of Vietnamese traditional instruments in the world and a rapidly emerging composer. She dedicates her life to creating music by blending the wonderfully unique sounds of Vietnamese instruments with other music genres, and fusing deeply rooted Vietnamese musical traditions with fresh new structures and compositions.
She has presented her music at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center (2012, 2014, 2016), Lincoln Center, NPR, Houston Grand Opera, Yerba Buena Performing Arts Center, UK WOMAD Festival, and London Olympic Games 2012 Music Festival. She has been invited and participated as a screening judge in the World Music category for both the 2015, 2016 & 2018 Grammy® Awards. Under President Obama's administration, Vân-Ánh became the first Vietnamese artist to perform at the White House and received the Artist Laureate Award for her contribution to communities through the arts. In addition to the zither (đàn Tranh) Vân-Ánh also performs as a soloist on the monochord (đàn Bầu), the bamboo xylophone (đàn T’rung), traditional drums (trống) and many other traditional instruments.