Founding Green Wind in 2019, Ms. Nguyen Hai Yen wants to bring choral music to many people, using choral music to connect people and bring good values to the community.
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| Choir conductor Nguyen Hai Yen. (Photo: NVCC) |
Having founded the Golden Age Choir for the elderly, conductor Nguyen Hai Yen has now become the “soul” of Green Wind with more than 200 members from 6 to 85 years old, practicing singing together every weekend in Hanoi. The first time I met and witnessed the choir’s enthusiastic practice, I understood her love for the music career for the community.
Connecting people through music
Nguyen Hai Yen said that when she was a student at the Conservatory, her teachers sometimes gave her tickets to concerts by foreign artists. At that time, she felt like she was living in another world, a beautiful world - where she immersed herself in music and let her imagination fly freely.
Looking back, Hai Yen said that those were the times when she truly enjoyed the precious heritages of humanity, felt the value of music and nurtured beautiful emotions for her soul. From then on, she realized that she needed to continue learning and cultivating so that she could, in turn, bring that music to many people, helping them also enjoy and feel these wonderful values.
According to Hai Yen, the most difficult thing to do when establishing a community choir is to make the music truly of the community and for the community.
With Green Wind, she is fortunate to have an executive board with members who sing in the choir to help, volunteering to take care of the organization and logistics so she can focus on her expertise. Music itself has great connecting power, so her job is to choose suitable works, guide and inspire people.
Here, people sing first for themselves, then for the community. They also learn to listen to each other, learn to join their voices to create beautiful sounds, even though there are members as old as 85 like Mrs. Tam.
Ms. Nhat Mai - a member of Gio Xanh confided: "When I registered for the audition, I was very depressed. At that time, I even recorded the feeling of being swept away by the water and about to drown, meeting Gio Xanh was like grabbing a piece of wood.
The first day I met them, I knew this was my community, meant for me, especially seeing everyone sing Thank you for the music. On the way home, I stopped in the middle of the road and cried like crazy because I felt so inspired to keep going and live happily, no matter what.”
For tenor Nguyen Tien Anh, singing in a choir has helped him discover his abilities and completely changed his life.
Tien Anh confided: “Before joining the choir, I only considered music and singing as recreational activities, and never thought that I would wholeheartedly pursue music.
“The Green Wind” has given me a great motivation to make the decision to enter music school. I want to work with the choir to spread this positive and refreshing energy to children in difficult circumstances, so that they no longer feel self-conscious and inferior.”
As Ms. Hai Yen affirmed, choir is a type of musical performance that has great power to move people, not only connecting people but also arousing beautiful emotions and positively affecting the listener's spirit.
In Vietnam, choral art is mainly known on professional stages, performed by professional artists. The number of amateur choirs is not much, most of them are sponsored by an organization or business and usually only gather for a certain period of time to serve a performance.
However, Green Wind is the first choir to operate according to the community choir model, serving the community and run by the members themselves, on the basis of mutual respect and for the common good.
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| Performance of the 2022 “Green Passport” concert. (Photo: NVCC) |
Spread the blue circles
More than three years since its establishment, Green Wind regularly participates in art programs requiring high professional quality as well as community events.
In 2020, the orchestra held its first concert called “Green Christmas” with 700 spectators, including 164 children who were guests from social protection centers in Hanoi.
In 2022, the second concert called “Green Passport” will continue to be held for two nights in Hanoi and one night in Ha Long with nearly 2,000 audiences, including 500 special guests from many social protection facilities in Hanoi and Quang Ninh.
This year, conductor Nguyen Hai Yen and members decided to organize concerts in three cities: Da Nang (August 12), Hanoi (November 4) and Ha Long (November 11) with the theme "The Circle of Green".
At the concert, they performed about 20 musical works together, including many immortal songs such as When you believe (from the movie The Prince of Egypt), How far I'll go (from the movie Moana), The Circle of Life (from the movie The Lion King), Bohemian Rhapsody (a song from the movie of the same name about the legendary rock band Queen), Another day of Sun (from the movie La La Land), or The Moon Speaks for My Heart (one of the most famous Chinese songs of all time)...
In addition, the concert also devoted time to Vietnamese songs such as Trong com, Ly keo chai, Bai ca tom ca, 30 con chim, Tam chu co… sung with 4-6 parts, giving the work a new spirit, still familiar, but more open, profound and touching many layers of emotions of the listener.
Conductor Nguyen Hai Yen said that this year's concerts are expected to welcome about 2,500 spectators over three nights, including about 750 special guests who are children from social protection centers in Da Nang, Hanoi and Ha Long.
In each city, she takes time to teach singing directly to the children and selects some of them to perform with the orchestra.
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| A music practice session for children of Green Wind in Hanoi. (Photo: Minh Dang) |
Talking about the theme of the upcoming concert, Ms. Hai Yen said that it is the circle of “enjoyment - feeling - learning - dedication” of each person’s life and has the color green – the color of life, nature, the Earth, youth and the purest things.
In fact, on her journey of experience with Green Wind, she witnessed the miraculous healing of choral music.
The female conductor shared: “I never thought that just singing together every week could “save” someone's soul, but it happened.
I believe more and more in my path of making music towards the community, believe in the mission of Green Wind - to continue expanding the magical green circle to everyone, spreading love of life, spreading joy and happiness to wherever it is needed."
It can be said that the enthusiasm of the audience when watching the performance, the happy smiles of the members when standing on stage, the emotional feelings of the teachers and mothers, or the messages full of anticipation after each performance are the happiness and motivation for the choir to maintain and develop.
What is important is that the members all want to spread that happiness to everyone – a spirit that anyone who comes into contact with them can feel, like the slogan “Blow far and wide”.
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