His family said before his passing, he lived alone and was recently cared for by his siblings. He suffered from kidney and heart disease. His relatives are making arrangements to bring him back to his hometown in Ninh Binh for burial.
Pham Duc Thanh was born in 1956 and showed an early aptitude for music. By the age of 4, he could play the cheo drum, at 5 the mandolin, and by 6, he could play the dan bau and dan nhi (two-stringed fiddle).
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Artist Pham Duc Thanh. Photo: Golden Age |
In 1974, he started working at the Vietnam Cheo Theater. Later, he moved to Ho Chi Minh City to further his studies in the traditional music of central and southern Vietnam. In October 1983, he graduated at the top of his class from university with a degree in Vietnamese Traditional Music Research. He settled in Canada in 2006. While abroad, he opened several classes teaching dan bau and Vietnamese folk music.
He was once voted by Canada's ART television station as an artist who made great contributions to the dissemination, preservation, and development of traditional Vietnamese music. He performed with the renowned Chinese pipa player Liu Fang and participated in performances with the late Professor Tran Van Khe at numerous international folk music festivals.
On 3/3/2018, he held the "Doc huyen cam" (Monochord) concert at the Hanoi Opera House, his first major live show in Vietnam.
He was twice married and had one son.
Ha Thu
