Nguyen Ngoc Khánh* is an award-winning folk musician, acclaimed as a "national treasure" in his home country of Vietnam for his virtuosic performances on the ken (a reed instrument similar to the Indo-Persian shehnai). He also plays the Sino-Vietnamese two-stringed violin and a variety of flutes and other wind instruments.
Khánh was born in 1956 in Duong Coc village in Hatay Province, about an hour from Ha Noi. His father, Nguyen Ngoc Binh, is a well-known musician in his own right and was Khánh's first music teacher, who taught and instilled a love and reverence for traditional music and for the powers of nature, as expressed through both music and martial arts.
In 1968, during the American War, when Khánh was a secondary school student, the Tuong Classical Theater Troupe number 5 moved to an air-raid shelter in Duong Coc village and commenced teaching music from the Tuong to the villagers. At twelve years old, this was Khánh's first formal introduction to classical Vietnamese music and the birth of his life-long passion for the ken.
From 1972 until graduation in 1976, Khánh attended the Viet Nam School of Art and Theatre studying ken and traditional music and graduated at the top of his class. He then worked for several years for a regional Tuong group until in 1983 he became a primary musician for the Central Tuong Theatre Troupe. In 1992, at the National Competition for Traditional Music in Da Nang, Khánh was awarded a gold medal for his transcendental interpretation of one of Vietnam's most beloved traditional songs, "Du Xuan."
Khánh lives in Hanoi with his wife and children, performing and teaching music and making and repairing bamboo flutes. He performs regularly in the Tuong Classical Theatre and the Hanoi Water Puppet Theatre, and occasionally performs internationally.
The first recordings of Khánh's music will be released on the nonprofit CreatioNation / Earthville label in March 2007. A documentary film featuring Khanh and his music is currently in production for a late 2007 release.
*Note: In Vietnamese custom, the family name comes first, so "Nguyen" is his family name and "Khánh" is his given name.