Little do lecturers and students at HCMUT – Bach Khoa know that the girl named Bui Vu Nguyen Minh, taking the Industrial Management, English program, Intake 2019, is an accomplished pianist.
Been into music since 3 years old
Although she was not born in a family of artists, Nguyet Minh still feels happy about it as she has met a lot of special people in her life. One of them is her mother.
When she was young, she usually fell asleep by Chopin’s iconic pieces of music played by her mom. And when she was awake playing around, her mom played Mozart’s music. At age 3, Nguyet Minh got introduced to the piano and her mom used her fingers to touch piano keys unconsciously. As much as she had been interested in black and white keys, Nguyet Minh quickly got bored with them because of other eye-catching toys.
Nguyet Minh honestly shared that she was listening inactively to the music of Chopin Nocturnes and Chopin Preludes played by Dang Thai Son the Merited Artist. Practicing piano was just a positive habit, it’s not really a passion of her life.
Everyone believes that she must have practiced intensively at the beginning to become such a professional pianist at the moment. But that’s not true. She chuckling said that the intensive practice was not actually true because “I spent most of the time playing around”. Even when she has been recognized as a young piano genius, Nguyet Minh has never had the experience of practicing piano all day long. To Nguyet Minh, having a healthy routine is also considered a “piano skill”.
And, the longer she practices, the more passionate she gets. Without her realizing, the piano has become Nguyet Minh’s best friend. After 2-3 years practicing professionally, Nguyet Minh got accepted to the Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City when having turned 9. This is also a milestone that laid the foundation for her further development, as well as to form Nguyet Minh’s nowadays style of performing.
Mentioning her mom with such proud eyes, Minh said that her mom really understands her well and she always teaches her daughter to be independent, self-curious, and critical in all problems. That is the reason why she has become so mature compared to others at her age.
Feeling safer whenever on stage
Whoever has once listened to Nguyet Minh’s piano performance must be amazed by her skills and emotions that she put in her performance. To achieve so, apart from the guidance of the teachers and family, she must self-learn and research through books, news or the Internet about worldwide famous artists’ biography and their style of writing music.
Commenting about Nguyet Minh, Ph.D. Dang Ngoc Giang Quan – a lecturer at the Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City, said: “In my career of teaching, I rarely know students who have mature and profound emotions like Minh, which is even shown when she plays the piano. She is a perfect combination of both profound emotions and enthusiasm while many others just have one of those two factors.
Commenting about Nguyet Minh’s talent, the musician Nguyen Thien Dao stated that: “A real artist is not special at all in their daily life, but when it comes to performance, they slay. That’s Nguyet Minh.”
| PROFILE Full name: Bui Vu Nguyet Minh – Course K2019 English program student, majoring in Industrial Management – IELTS 7.5 Achievements – Second runner-up of the Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial International Piano Competition 2016 (Serbia) – Accepted by the Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University, USA), 2016 – Ho Chi Minh City Outstanding Young Citizen Award 2016 – First international student to win piano scholarship in 2015 of Music Academy of the West (USA) – Being a research assistant for Prof. Tom Zelle (German conductor teaching at North Park University, USA) on Phenomenology of Music, music psychology, El Sisteme method of supporting society through classical music teaching) – Participated in the classical music festival at Curtis Institute of Music (USA) in 2014 – The only student to win the “Talent” award from the Consulate General of Italy in Ho Chi Minh City, invited to perform at Donizetti Opera Theater (Italy) in 2014 – Performed at International Piano Meeting 2012 (Italy), International Classical Music Festival 2012 (Malaysia) – Toyota Scholarship of 2012, 2013, 2016 – Golden Prize at Korean music festival in 2011 – Performing at Piano Festival 2011 (HCMC Conservatory of Music) – Participating in the First International Piano Competition – 2010 (Hanoi) – Young Talent Protection Fund scholarship continuously in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 |
It cannot be denied that when we put everything together correctly, Nguyet Minh with her piano and on a stage, she quickly learns and grows with her skillful ability to play the piano and feel the music. Her confidence and absorption in music make the girl become stronger right after a performance. Nguyet Minh has become the representative to take part in numerous national and international piano contests as a guest or a candidate several times in a row. She has been to the US, Italy, Serbia, Netherlands, Korea, Malaysia, etc. so far to compete and perform.
Minh said that the moment when playing the piano in front of thousands of audiences is even safer and more interesting than in the practice room. “Performing on the stage is unlike a rehearsal. Even when you are stressed out, you are not allowed to express it.”
When preparing for the summer music festival at Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia, America), Nguyet Minh was responsible for the accompaniment for a female soprano vocal. However, when it was just a few days left to the performance, the girl canceled her presence due to personal excuses. So Minh had only 2 days to practice 8 accompaniment songs for a male tenor vocal! Fortunately, everything about the performance is “just alright”.
The most memorable trip to Nguyet Minh is the trip to Chicago visiting the North Park University because she got the invitation from the conductor, Prof. Dr. Tom Zelle. This respectful man introduced Minh to the famous German artist – Alexander Schimpf. These two people are greatly influential to Nguyet Minh’s awareness and artist mindset.
Having the opportunities to compete and perform abroad, Minh knows that she has to make much more effort to study and absorb the music. The times that Minh visits other countries have brought to her a wealth of experience and knowledge. All of them are about the way cultures, geography, languages, and history have a huge impact on music.
Speaking of the impacts of music and piano on her life, Nguyet Minh said: “Playing music requires intensive concentration, the independence in mindset and confidence in front of the crowd. It’s also a way to improve your memory and study tough Western history.”
A “peg puff” without hand dexterity
Nguyet Minh’s grandmother told: “I always see her reading books in her free time. Since she is proactive about everything, I and her mom rarely tell her what to do. Her bookshelf is full of research books, sometimes she brings what she read up to us and we really don’t know what to discuss with her. We have to say that sometimes she acts like a “peg puff”.
Nguyet Minh loves reading books at any time she’s free in the day. And most of her perennial favorite books are scientific or in-depth studies books. One of them is Phenomenology by Husserl and Phenomenological view of Music by Sergiu Celibidache.
Besides, she also loves the movies named Gone with the Wind and Doctor Strange, like soccer and she is a big fan of Doraemon. Nguyet Minh shared that she was the core member of her school’s football team.
Moreover, she also plays the violin very well!
Aspire to renew herself
Having been in the art career for long enough, Bui Vu Nguyet Minh stated that what makes art a tough career is that there is no right and wrong, unlike science. It mostly depends on the audiences’ moods. Therefore, when performing in a different country, the artist must be proactively flexible to become a part of the foreign audiences’ emotions, context, geography, politics, and their science and technology background. Everything must harmonize well to bring an appropriate show to most of the audiences there.
After any milestone in her life, Nguyet Minh aspires to escape from her old image, explore more kinds of music and look into the meaning behind every piece of art. “By many different experiences, I can express my awareness, emotions, and heart in diverse types of music, in order to bring a gamut of emotions and the cultures to audiences. I want myself to be more diverse”, Minh said.
In order to prepare for a new journey, Nguyet Minh decided to slow down a bit by spending more time in 2018 traveling, learning more languages and researching on different topics. “Diving more into history, philosophy of numerous cultures is not only for my personal purpose but also for me to improve my performance because it’s directly related to art. Moreover, during this time, I want to try to look for another me, consider new music career paths, find new ideas about music with the motivation from the younger”, Nguyet Minh shared.
If I gave up on my dream and my love earlier, that couldn’t be my ambition. Just work hard and it will be paid off. Opportunities don’t come from anyone’s good luck, they come from your constant attempt.”, Bui Vu Nguyet Minh said.
In 2019, Nguyet Minh decided to go to the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, majoring in Industrial Management, English program with her dream to contribute to the development of the music industry in Vietnam.
Let’s enjoy Bui Vu Nguyet Minh’s piano performance of Piano Sonata No.21 in B-flat major, D.960, I. Molto moderato!
