An important part of that doctoral dissertation (2025) is stories of many Vietnamese women who lived through the wars of the 20th century. That was when I learned more about Henriette Bùi Quang Chiêu (1906–2012), the first female medical doctor in Vietnam and the first Vietnamese woman to earn a medical degree in France. Since […]
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Rough Sea Birds, composed for soprano, bass flute, and harp, is inspired by my mother’s poetic reflection on her youth. When my mother was a young girl, a hometown boy fell in love with her with an affection as pure as “a cool stream.” However, my mother was a budding and ambitious writer who was
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I remember a sweet moment in the summer of 2023, when my mother visited me in Tallahassee, FL. We went to the Cascades Park and saw the beautiful blooming lotus flowers in the lake. My mother spontaneously recited a timeless poem by Nguyễn Du, a revered figure in Vietnamese classical literature. Below are the original
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To many people, he is a hero. Others label him a plane hijacker. But to his family and friends, he is forever a fervent advocate of peace who died for his cause. His name is Nguyễn Thái Bình, which means “Peace.” The day he was born, Vietnam was still in war, so his parents named
This work is a collection of one Sanskrit mantra and five Buddhist poems of Vietnam, all of which were written in Chinese because Vietnamese people had used Chinese as the written language of learning until our Latin-based modern national script was popularized in the twentieth century. I kept the original text of the Sanskrit mantra
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https://youtu.be/y2fUg9aj0Vo?si=R5mdXpXZQf1DxKJI November 18, 2018: Senior Composition Recital, performed by musicians at North Park University: Olga Lebedeva (mezzo-soprano), Rebekah Harvey (flute), and Michael Ronnett (piano). A previous performance by the same musicians took place on November 13, 2017. While Mãn Giác (滿覺, 1052–96), a revered Vietnamese Zen master and Buddhist monk, was facing the imminent departure from
A Branch of Plum Blossoms for Mezzo-Soprano, Flute, and Piano Read More »
The lyrics of this song is the poem “Tống Biệt Hành” (Song of Separation), written by Thâm Tâm in 1940. The poem encapsulates the sentiments of many young Vietnamese people who were facing the oppressive grip of French colonial rule on their homeland. As the nation had enduring nearly a century of silent resignation and
Song of Separation (Tống Biệt Hành) (2017) for Baritone, Cello, and Piano Read More »
https://youtu.be/utD3OfdgfFo?si=piw4hA50a84vaW8y Recorded by the Popebama Duo at Florida State University (FSU) in 2023. Elected final selection of SCI Super Regional Summer Mixtape 2023. I composed The Boat and the Sea as a celebration of my first love. This piece is inspired by a poem by Xuân Quỳnh (1942–88), one of the most well-known female poets
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My mother wrote the poem “My Soul Plant” when she started loving my father. So young and hopeful at that time, she still had a faint presage that her love for him would become the origin of much pain in the later years. Yet she loved him with all her heart and never regretted loving
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She Came Back from the War is based on a Vietnamese poem, “Two Generations of Mothers,” written by my mother, Trầm Hương, in 1993. The original poem recounts the true story of a Vietnamese woman who lost her leg from the Vietnam–American War. Thus, she was unable to marry after the war had ended. Her
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