BYU NewsNet - Y Musicians to Play in Vietnam

By TYLA WAXTER

BYU students have been invited to play in a professional symphony as part of a new program offered through the David A. Kennedy Center for International Studies.

Beginning this spring, students in the School of Music will have the opportunity to study with the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet Orchestra in Hanoi, Vietnam, while at the same time earning internship credit.

“It is a great opportunity for serious students…to play serious music,” said Lyn Elliott, director of international study programs.

While in Vietnam, students will rehearse and perform with professional musicians.

“It’s rare that we have internships with professionals,” Elliott said.

Vietnam is also a very interesting place, said Aaron Rose, program coordinator

“It is a very unique opportunity,” he said.

Students can obtain credentials for resumes and experience for going abroad. It is a cross-cultural study, Rose said.

“I think that every BYU student will benefit from any educational experience abroad,” Rose said. “It helps to bring studies into a global perspective. It helps them to understand that they do have a good opera in Vietnam.”

The opera company in Vietnam, Rose said, is prestigious and has French influences in the architecture of the opera house.

Classical music can be found throughout the world. Although many associate Vietnam with war, Rose said the cross-cultural internship will help increase the understanding that there is a need for opera and classical music in every community.

This internship is an opportunity because it will give both the students and Vietnam's professional musicians an opportunity to understand each other’s culture through their interaction. Intertwined with how they play music will be a chance to mingle with new cultures. For example, sharing will take place as both come understand how the players carry themselves and techniques used for rehearsals.

“[The Vietnamese musicians] are very good,” said Diane Reich, assistant professor of music in voice. Reich had the opportunity in 2005 to sing several opera arias with the Vietnamese orchestra and also work with young artist singers who spoke little English.

“It was a very good experience creating opera across a language barrier,” she said. “How wonderful it is to communicate musically when you can’t communicate verbally.”

The orchestra director has been asking for years to intertwine cultures, Reich said, after he first came to BYU and he was impressed by the students.

“[The orchestra director] wanted his players to associate with American players,” Elliott said.

Eventually, talk about such a program was initiated by a BYU alumni contact in South China who has connections to the Opera Ballet Company, Rose said.