Emmy Award-winning musician to perform on campus

Contact: Cara Barnes
Photo of Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ.


Photo courtesy of Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated musician Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ will perform a concert of new and traditional Vietnamese music at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, in the Dalton Center Recital Hall.

The performance will be preceded by a 7 p.m. discussion hosted by Dr. Robert White. Tickets are $12 general admission, $10 for seniors and $5 for students, and are available from Miller Auditorium at millerauditorium.com/som or by calling (269) 387-2300 or (800) 228-9858.

Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ

Võ is an accomplished artist of the Vietnamese dan tranh (16-stringed zither), dan bau (monochord) and dan t’rung (bamboo xylophone). After graduating with distinction from the National Conservatory of Music in Hanoi and winning a national zither competition in 1995, Võ moved to the United States and began a ground-breaking career, mixing traditional music with new compositions that bridge the divide between Vietnamese traditional and Western art music. She has performed solo concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Lincoln Center in New York and has been featured on Public Radio International’s The World and on NPR’s All Things Considered.

She also composes new music and created the soundtrack for the documentary films "Bolinao 52," for which she won an Emmy Award, and "Daughter From Danang," for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Her most recent album, Three-Mountain Pass, features collaborative work with the Kronos Quartet, considered one of the premier string quartets in North America.

Bullock Music Performance Institute

Established in the fall of 1985 and renamed in 1988 in honor of its founder, the institute's mission is to add to the already rich cultural life of Kalamazoo by creating opportunities to develop closer personal and artistic ties between audience and performer. The institute has presented events ranging from formal evening concerts to daytime educational outreach events for students and local audiences of all ages.

For more information about the Wednesday evening concert series, call (269) 387-4704 or (269) 387-4678, or visit wmich.edu/music.

For more news, arts and events, visit wmich.edu/news.