As a military singer pursuing a professional music career, over the past 30 years, Lieutenant Colonel, Meritorious Artist Huong Giang has made admirable contributions, helping to enrich the treasure trove of Vietnamese folk music and traditional art.
With her sweet, mellow voice and burning passion for art, she has captured the hearts of audiences with her profound lyrics and melodies about her homeland, country and people of Vietnam.
Growing up from the "cradle of music"
Huong Giang was born and raised in Quynh Luu, Nghe An - a brave land at the mouth of the sea but also very warm and sweet. Since childhood, Huong Giang's soul was "bathed" in the lullabies of her grandmother and mother. The songs and the melodies of the Vi Giam songs nurtured her childhood soul, inspiring and burning passion for music in her.
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| Meritorious Artist Huong Giang comes from a family with a tradition of art. |
Huong Giang was fortunate to be born into a family with a tradition of loving music. Her grandparents established a theater troupe early to serve the people and the army. Her uncle is the famous musician An Thuyen, who took on the position of conductor when he was young. Her family has 9 siblings, all of whom have artistic talent. Her eldest brother is People's Artist An Phuc, famous in the Vietnamese Cheo art world. In that ideal artistic environment, music entered her heart very naturally. Her passion for art grew stronger and more passionate than ever. It was music, the spiritual food that nurtured her beautiful soul, the red thread running through the luggage of the golden voice of Nghe An that echoed throughout the beloved roads of the Fatherland.
"Since my childhood, in addition to helping my teacher cut traditional Chinese medicine to cure people and help my mother sew clothes, I herded buffaloes and cows and hummed familiar folk songs from my hometown. Growing up, I became closer to and increasingly admired the musical talents of Uncle An Thuyen, Brother An Phuc and my siblings. They were a great source of motivation that urged me to always keep in mind that I must constantly strive to find my own path in the artistic path...", Ms. Huong Giang shared.
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| Meritorious Artist Huong Giang grew up from the grassroots |
And then Huong Giang came to the art of music as a fate when musician An Thuyen recognized her talent and it was also the musician who encouraged her to go to Hanoi to study vocal music to pursue a professional music career later. Overcoming the sun and wind of her homeland, leaving the familiar land of Quynh Luu, Huong Giang came to the capital Hanoi with a strong desire to learn, improve and contribute to art.
Struggle in the face of adversity
On the path of artistic activities, Huong Giang has had to face countless difficulties, challenges and turning points in life. However, on the journey of pursuing her passion and desire to preserve folk materials in modern music trends, she has never once thought of giving up. For her, to enjoy the sweet fruits of her career, she must go through the harsh experiences of life.
Pursuing her musical dream from an early age, Huong Giang did not hesitate to go to the far South to become a singer of the Art Troupe of Military Region 9 when she was only 21 years old. The young singer waded through streams and forests throughout the provinces of the Mekong Delta to perform for the soldiers and people of the delta. She said that sometimes she had to drift on rivers for hours at night to reach the performance location, and sometimes she accompanied units stationed in deep forests and mountains. It was those years that gave her valuable experiences as a military artist. The singing of soldiers and artists on the training ground added spiritual strength for soldiers to complete their missions. On cold winter nights or in the middle of a sunny and windy training ground, the high, powerful, clear, and lyrical voice of the Nghe An girl captivated people every time she sang.
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| Meritorious Artist Huong Giang is known as the "singer of the training ground" |
Over the past 6 years working at the Art Troupe of Military Region 9 and 7 years working at the Army Music and Dance Theater have given Huong Giang many valuable experiences in her artistic career and later teaching vocal music at the Military University of Culture and Arts.
Sharing about the difficulties in the teaching process, she said: “The most fearful thing in teaching vocal music is the lack of experience because the knowledge in books is only a part. I am fortunate to have experienced many artistic environments to be able to practice, accumulate and learn; knowledge from life is applied to my lectures for students. For example, performing in Truong Sa in 2015 helped me understand more about the life of a soldier, reminding myself to live better, more responsibly to be worthy of the sacrifice of the soldiers who are day and night protecting the sea and sky of the Fatherland.”
In her journey of “living and dedicating herself to music”, Huong Giang always believes that she needs to spread more strongly and widely the love for traditional music, the awareness of preserving and developing the country’s music to the younger generation. Therefore, she always puts all her heart and love for music into each lesson to inspire her students.
Sweet fruits
15 years ago, a young artist attracted the public's attention when she successfully recreated the image of the heroine Le Thi Rang - Ms. Su in the play "Two Mothers" by Major General, musician An Thuyen. That talented young singer was Huong Giang.
“Two Mothers” is a difficult musical, requiring the performer to have a sufficient level of classical vocal singing and the ability to meet the strict requirements of the theater stage. With her artistic talent and constant efforts, Huong Giang has excellently completed the role of Ms. Su. The press at that time gave many words of recognition and praise for the artistic efforts of the young artist Huong Giang. Until now, many people, whenever they return to the South, secretly ask how the artist who played the role of Ms. Su is now. They cannot forget the image of the young girl with a powerful voice and an emotional performance, who moved them to tears.
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| Meritorious Artist Huong Giang possesses a lyrical soprano voice. |
Through a long journey with many difficulties and challenges, Meritorious Artist Huong Giang has won the love and admiration of colleagues and the public. Possessing a lyrical soprano voice; an emotional and delicate singing style; a flexible voice when handling works such as mainstream songs, folk songs or Aria, Romane, Huong Giang has handled them skillfully. As a child of Nghe An, who has been imbued with every folk song, Huong Giang naturally performs the sounds and intonations of her hometown in her folk songs. At the same time, the years of being attached to the Mekong Delta have helped Huong Giang experience the beauty of solo singing culture, and love the folk songs of the Mekong Delta even more. Therefore, Huong Giang is also known as a very "cool" singer of songs with the folk music of the South. As a performer of sweet and soulful folk music, Huong Giang loves her homeland's melodies, so no matter what region's folk song it is, she is always particularly creative in her performance. This helps Huong Giang perform many songs of different genres, becoming closer and touching the hearts of listeners.
In particular, Meritorious Artist Huong Giang has combined skillful vocal techniques with smooth traditional folk singing, research points that she has affirmed in her Master's thesis, as well as her latest research on the topic "Folk songs and their application in performance practice" organized by the Military University of Culture and Arts.
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| Meritorious Artist Huong Giang has combined skillful vocal techniques with smooth folk singing. |
After more than 30 years of pursuing her career, she has won many prestigious awards. As a military artist, she won the Second Prize in the Solo Singing Contest "Spring and the Soldier" organized by the General Department of Politics in 1998 with the song "Uncle's Advice Before Going Away"; 2 Silver Medals for National Television for the music film of Can Tho Television Station competing in the National Television Film Festival, Silver Medal for the Professional Music and Dance Festival of the Army 2003... And the most brilliant was the Gold Medal for the Professional Art Festival of the Army 2008 when Captain Huong Giang performed excellently the role of Ms. Su in the musical "Two Mothers" composed by Major General - musician An Thuyen. Silver medal with the song: "In the forest, missing you" (An Thuyen) at the National Professional Performance organized by the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism in 2009, and especially with the song "There is a fresh stream" (An Thuyen), Huong Giang won the Gold Medal at the National Professional Performance in 2012...
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| Lieutenant Colonel Huong Giang was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist. |
As a lecturer at the Faculty of Vocal Music, University of Military Culture and Arts, Lieutenant Colonel, Meritorious Artist Huong Giang continuously received Certificates of Merit from the Military Region Command or the University. As for the Military Theater, in 2011 and 2012, she was continuously an Emulation Fighter of the Theater, and for two consecutive years received Certificates of Merit from the Ministry of National Defense. With those outstanding achievements, in 2016, Lieutenant Colonel, Meritorious Artist Huong Giang was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist by the President. In 2022, she was honored by the Ministry of National Defense as an Outstanding Woman of the entire Army for the period (2012 - 2022).
Lieutenant Colonel, Meritorious Artist Huong Giang always has a burning desire to inspire and love the homeland for young people in and out of the army through revolutionary songs. Because the 8X, 9X, 10X generations did not experience war, but through the stories of the previous generation and their love for the country today, they are nurtured through emotional compositions, enriching the songs of revolutionary music. For Huong Giang, contemporary singers need to commit, explore and exploit more deeply revolutionary materials to bring quality songs with musical value that breathe the breath of the times.
That is why, recently, she and journalist Vuong Xuan Nguyen and her colleagues have been working day and night to carry out a project to promote the musical values of traditional songs and folk songs from all regions to inspire love for the homeland, gratitude to heroic Vietnamese mothers, revolutionary predecessors, Uncle Ho, General Vo Nguyen Giap, General Secretary Le Duan, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong... Her meaningful music project has received the support and encouragement of many musicians, journalists, artists and many press agencies to spread in the community. The new works performed by her and her colleagues have been posted on the website https://nguyenhuonggiang.vn/ and published and broadcast nationally and have been widely received by audiences at home and abroad.
Looking back at the ripe fruits that Huong Giang has reaped in her artistic career makes us admire and appreciate even more that Lieutenant Colonel, Meritorious Artist Huong Giang has always worked with all her enthusiasm and responsibility as a soldier over the past decades and a beautiful soul that always aspires to dedicate herself completely to art to contribute to the source of music that flows forever in the mainstream of spiritual values and Vietnamese cultural identity, so that the beauty of the Vietnamese land can adorn the brocade landscape that our ancestors have passed down through thousands of years of history, forever lasting and developing..., just as the expectations of relatives, family and hometown when naming and giving the stage name Huong Giang to the golden voice of Nghe An.
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