The Music

Nguyen Ngoc Khanh (Vietnamese: Nguyễn Ngọc Khánh) is an award-winning traditional 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). With deep roots in the Vietnamese countryside and a laser focus that flows from his martial arts discipline, Khanh's music vibrates with a penetrating spiritual power that opens doors to other worlds. This disc presents the first recordings of the raw, wild beauty of Khanh's music available to a global audience.

The Artist

Nguyen Ngoc Khanh was born in 1956 in Duong Coc village, about an hour's drive from Hanoi. (Note: In Vietnamese custom, the family name comes first; thus, "Nguyen" is his family name and "Khanh" is his given name.) Khanh's father, Nguyen Ngoc Binh, is a well-known musician in his own right and was his 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 Khanh was a secondary school student, the Tuong Classical Theatre Troupe #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 Khanh'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, Khanh attended the Vietnam 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. He also achieved mastery of the Sino-Vietnamese two-stringed violin as well as a variety of flutes and other wind instruments.

In 1992, at the National Competition for Traditional Music in Danang, Khanh was awarded a gold medal for his transcendental interpretation of one of Vietnam's most beloved traditional songs, "Du Xuan."

Khanh 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. He is interested in collaborations with musicians from other cultures, and he dreams of establishing a school of traditional music in Vietnam.

The Charities

All proceeds from the sale of this CD benefit charitable projects to support the arts and educational and infrastructural programs in Vietnam. For more information on the artists and the charitable projects, visit LotusAndLightning.com.