Vietnam's first female conductor, Meritorious Artist Binh Trang, has just passed away.

Bình Trang - Ảnh 1. — Portrait of Mrs. Binh Trang when she was young - Photo archive

Information provided by artist Binh Trang's family to Tuoi Tre Online on the morning of September 1.

Binh Trang, Vietnam's first female conductor

Born in 1933, Ms. Binh Trang joined the revolution early in 1950 and was sent to study at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Soviet Union), graduating with a major in choral conducting - a field that was rare for women to pursue at that time.

Returning to Vietnam, she taught at the Hanoi Conservatory of Music and the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music, becoming one of the few female conductors in Vietnam at that time and until now.

Conductor Hoang Diep said that artist Binh Trang was her "teacher" in choral conducting at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music since 1977. Because of that close relationship, later Ms. Hoang Diep was able to succeed Ms. Binh Trang in inheriting and promoting choral conducting at the conservatory.

When Tuoi Tre Online contacted, Ms. Hoang Diep and her family were welcoming delegations to visit artist Binh Trang.

"She was like family to my family. I was both her student and her adopted child. I knew all the changes in her health over the years, but when my master passed away, there was still a wordless pain," said Ms. Diep.

Bình Trang - Ảnh 2. — Ms. Binh Trang is one of the rare conductors in Vietnam - Photo: provided by conductor Hoang Diep

Writer Tram Huong once wrote a few lines about the life of artist Binh Trang in the article Autumn Symphony, and also made a documentary produced by TFS titled A Piece of Love.

The writer has just finished writing a manuscript about the special lives of the three artist sisters Binh Trang.

Including Binh Thanh, a woman who once searched for the national flag; Binh Minh - a diplomatic attaché who followed Mrs. Nguyen Thi Binh during the Paris Agreement; and Binh Trang, Vietnam's first female conductor.

All three are daughters of engineer and patriot Nguyen Van Duc, so they have had a tradition of patriotism since childhood.

Ms. Binh Trang was a student at Marie Curie School, then joined the resistance against the French.

"On the outside she looks very dry but actually inside she is full of pain, a very emotional person", "Ms. Binh Trang is one of the music teachers for my daughter, very strict but teaches very well", writer Tram Huong told Tuoi Tre Online.

Ms. Tram Huong added that she is not familiar with music theory, but from the perspective of a writer and a human being, she sympathizes with Ms. Binh Trang's fate.

"She was a talented, patriotic woman who experienced many losses and sufferings in love and personal life due to the changes of the times," the writer said.

Meritorious Artist Binh Trang (1933 - 2025), held many positions: former deputy head of the Department of Composition Theory, conducting at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music, former head of the Department of Education and in charge of the Orchestra of the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music.

The artist was awarded many noble awards: 40-year Party membership badge, Second-class Resistance Medal, Medal for the cause of education, Medal for the cause of music , Medal for the cause of Vietnamese literature and arts...

She was also awarded the title of Meritorious Artist by the State, is a member of the Vietnam Musicians Association and the Ho Chi Minh City Music Association.

In addition to teaching and performing, she has also compiled many textbooks on choral conducting and translated and arranged many works for choir.

Her funeral was held at Lam Te Pagoda (212 Nguyen Trai, Cau Ong Lanh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City), after which her coffin was cremated at Binh Hung Hoa Cremation Center.

BEAN DUNG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nu-nhac-truong-dau-tien-cua-viet-nam-nsut-binh-trang-vua-qua-doi-2025090108461554.htm