Pham Duc Thanh

One of the world's most advanced dan bau players, Vietnamese traditional musician Pham Duc Thanh has performed in his native country before moving to Germany for a few years in the early ‘90s and finally settling down in Montreal, Québec, Canada in 1996. The dan bau is a traditional monochord instrument played with one hand bending a handle to modify pitch. It is one of the most distinct instruments of the Vietnamese tradition. Born in 1956, Duc Thanh began to study music at a very young age. The sound of the dan bau coming from a neighboring house bewitched him when he was ...