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Vũ Nhật Tân, Vietnam's Composer and Artist Extraordinaire, Passes Away at 50

Vũ Nhật Tân, Hanoi’s adept producer, musician, and artist, died recently due to illness.

Vũ Nhật Tân’s family confirmed with Tuoi Tre that Tân passed away on July 21 at the Hanoi Oncology Hospital, where he had been undergoing treatment for late-stage colorectal cancer. He was 50 years old. A family friend told Zing that the musician has been battling the disease since 2017.

Tân was born on August 8, 1970 into a family with deep connections to music. His father is Dr. Vũ Nhật Thăng, one of Vietnam’s leading experts on traditional music. Tân studied piano and then music composition at the Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi. His music education also included time spent in Germany and the US in the early 2000s.

In the last decade, he cultivated a following thanks to his exceptional talent in music production and unique experimentation, being able to create audio artworks that blend anything from street noises to classical instruments to Vietnam’s traditional instruments. When Tân wasn’t making music, he focused on imparting his deep wealth of knowledge to future generations of musicians in Vietnam as a professor at the music academy, his alma mater.

As a born and bred Hanoian, Tân harbored much affection for the capital, which served as the inspiration for his work on numerous occasions. In ‘Hanoise,’ he celebrated the eclectic mix of his hometown’s urban noises, something that many tend to view as a nuisance, rather than fodder for artistic inspiration.

“I was born and grew up in Hanoi. I’m a Hanoian. All of my youth is dedicated to this city,” Tân said of the project in an interview with The Thao Van Hoa. “I experienced from the coupon era to the open market; from the days of water and electricity shortages to the age of phones and internet; from the clean-air years of Hanoi until the polluted now. Everything is my life experience, so my works have reflected that reality and my thoughts about the city where I grew up and am living in.”

Listen to 'Five Elements,' composed by by Vũ Nhật Tân, below:

[Photo via Contented]

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