HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese students have won various prizes at the Kyushu Music Concour 2018 held in Kumamoto, Japan.

Phan Trung Kiên won the voice gold prize in the 18-25 age group, while Lê Trang Linh won the gold prize for piano in the 11-12 age group.

Both Kiên and Linh, who are students of the Việt Nam National Music Academy, also won the special prizes, the highest prize in the contest, for their impressive performances. The special prizes were awarded to mark the 20th anniversary of the contest.

Over 1,000 contestants from all over the world competed in the annual contest, which has categories including vocal and piano for people under 18 and people aged 18 to 25.

Kiên, who possesses a bass voice, and Lại Thị Hương Ly, with a soprano voice, both competed in the vocal category for ages 18-25.

Last year, Kiên won the gold cup at the Asia Pacific Festival 2017 held in Hong Kong. He then won the first prize at the National Young Talent Contest for Art Students held in Nha Trang the same year.

Kiên started to play the organ at 5 years old and then learnt piano. Only in 2013, after he graduated from high school in the northern province of Lạng Sơn, did he begin studying vocal performance at the academy.

Artist Đỗ Quốc Hưng, acting head of the Voice Department at the academy and Kiên’s supervisor for the past few years, said he chose the aria Dormiro sol nel manto mio regal by Giuseppe Verdi so that he could utilise his bass voice to maximum advantage.

“The bass voice that Kiên possesses is rare and valuable to opera circles not only in Việt Nam but also across Southeast Asia and Asia at large,” Hưng said. “He is the only one under 40 who can sing with that voice. I believe that if Kiên gets further training and practice, he will have more opportunities to achieve success.”

Student Ly won the silver prize in the same category.

Lê Trang Linh has been learning the piano for the past four years under the guidance of noted pianist Nguyễn Trinh Hương.

Linh has won various prizes, including the second prize in an online contest titled “Best Mozart Competition”, held on the 262nd birthday anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in January 2018.  

Three other students of Hương: Lê Thu Giang, Vũ Phương Anh and Phạm Nguyễn Nguyệt Hà - also won the Silver Prize in the 13-14 age group, the Bronze Prize in the 13-14 age group and the Bronze Prize in the 15-17 age group, respectively, in the same contest.

Lê Quốc Nhật Vinh, another Vietnamese student, won the Bronze Prize in the 11-12 age group. — VNS