Skip to content
MINH TRANGMUSIC

About

Multi-instrumentalist, performer and ethnomusicologist.

Minh-Trang Nguyen is a Vietnamese multi-instrumentalist and an award-winning performer of the 16-string đàn tranh, the Vietnamese zither. Alongside the đàn tranh and the Chinese guzheng she plays the đàn t’rưng (bamboo xylophone), the đàn đá (lithophone) and other instruments of the Vietnamese highlands.

Born into a family of musicians, she began studying traditional instruments at six and trained for ten years at the Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi. In 2008 she won first prize for solo đàn tranh at Vietnam’s national competition for traditional instruments. A Vietnamese government scholarship then took her to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in guzheng performance, and in 2022 she earned a master’s degree in ethnomusicology from the Haute école de musique de Genève.

In more than twenty years on stage she has performed in over fifteen countries, from Japan, Korea and the Philippines to Turkey, Morocco and across Europe. As a guest of Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI in the Ibn Battuta programme she has played in Istanbul, at the Edinburgh International Festival and at the Barbican in London. In Switzerland she plays guzheng and t’rưng with the world-music octet ASIMA, from the Montreux Jazz Festival to their album Humanité, and appears regularly at cultural and diplomatic events.

Today she is an independent musician based in Switzerland. She teaches at her own school, Zheng Music Academy, and at the Ateliers d’ethnomusicologie, and writes about the performance practice of the đàn tranh.

Short biography

For concert programmes and press. Copy freely.

Minh-Trang Nguyen is a Vietnamese đàn tranh and guzheng player and ethnomusicologist based in Switzerland. A first-prize winner of Vietnam’s national đàn tranh competition, she studied at the Vietnam National Academy of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and holds a master’s in ethnomusicology from the Haute école de musique de Genève. She has performed in over fifteen countries, including concerts with Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Barbican, London, and plays with the Swiss world-music octet ASIMA.

Selected highlights

  • Guest zheng player with Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI, Ibn Battuta: Istanbul, Edinburgh International Festival, Barbican London
  • Guzheng and t’rưng in ASIMA, Swiss world-music octet: Montreux Jazz Festival 2025, album Humanité 2026
  • World Economic Forum annual meeting, Davos, 2022
  • Lecture-concert at the University of Pavia–Cremona, Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage
  • Ateliers d’ethnomusicologie salon at the Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva
  • Festival des Cultures du Monde, Voiron
  • Invited performances for the Japanese government in Tokyo, Osaka and Okinawa
  • Asian Music Festival, Seoul; ASEAN Cultural Festival, Philippines
  • Member of the Tre Việt bamboo ensemble, 2003–2016

Teaching and research

  • Founder and teacher, Zheng Music Academy, Bussigny
  • Teacher of Vietnamese traditional music, Ateliers d’ethnomusicologie (ADEM), Écublens
  • Performer at the conference marking ten years of the joint master in ethnomusicology, HEM Genève, 2025
  • Recorded and arranged the đàn tranh curriculum for the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, 2015
  • Online đàn tranh lectures with Prof. Sun Wenyan for guzheng.cn, 2013
  • Invited judge, First National Guzheng Contest (Nanjing Bank Cup), 2015

Awards

  1. 2015Bronze medal, professional ensemble categoryInternational Jiangnan Sizhu Music Competition, Shanghai. The only foreign ensemble in the category.
  2. 2009Ranked first, entrance examination in đàn tranhHanoi Conservatory of Music
  3. 2009Bronze medal, Ching’ram performanceHanoi Festival of Folk Songs and Traditional Instruments
  4. 2008First prize, solo đàn tranhNational Competition for Solo and Ensemble Traditional Instruments, Vietnam
  5. 2008Third prize, ensembleNational Competition for Solo and Ensemble Traditional Instruments, Vietnam
  6. 2005Gold medal, lithophone (đàn đá) performanceHanoi Festival of Folk Songs and Traditional Instruments

Education

  1. 2019–2022Master, EthnomusicologyHaute école de musique de Genève, Switzerland
  2. 2011–2016Bachelor, Guzheng PerformanceShanghai Conservatory of Music, China
  3. 2000–2011Đàn tranh and traditional music performanceVietnam National Academy of Music, Hanoi

Scholarships

  1. 2011–2015Vietnamese Government full scholarshipStudies at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music
  2. 2012–2014Shanghai scholarship for outstanding foreign students
  3. 2008–2009Kumho Asiana and Toyota scholarships