Pham Thanh Duc - Vietnamese Traditional Dan Bau

Internationally acclaimed dan bau player, Pham Duc Thanh was born in Ninh Binh, northern Vietnam, in 1956. Displaying a remarkable musical aptitude as a child, Pham 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, Pham moved to Hanoi, 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, Pham and his wife, singer Lieu Nguyet Lan, left Vietnam and moved to Germany for several years before emigrating to Canada in 1996. Today, the Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist is known as one of the world's leading exponents of traditional Vietnamese music. Besides his solo work, Pham has also appeared on over 20 internationally released CDs including the movie soundtrack for Tony Bui's Three Seasons, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.