Born and raised in Thai Binh (old), the fine artist Van Mai is one of the outstanding male singers today. Possessing a pure and standard voice, she has spent more than 20 years of hard work pursuing and sticking with this traditional art form.
Not stopping at personal achievements, outstanding artist Van Mai chose the path of transmission instead of keeping her own profession. Faced with the risk of the death anniversary of ca Tru - a traditional art form that was once on the brink of extinction - she decided to open a free ca Tru class at Bich Chau Thuong Quan, with the desire to preserve and pass on the quintessence of this sport to the younger generation.
In each class, artisan Van Mai directly guides students with the most basic techniques such as taking a breath, dropping words, and tapping the phrases to the right beat.
She always emphasizes: Ca thu is not simply a type of music, but contains the soul of Vietnamese culture. If the younger generation does not preserve it, one day, we will lose this precious heritage.
Since her career with Ca Tru, artisan Van Mai has been thinking about how to study it correctly, really well, really well to be able to pass on the soul of this art to future generations. However, her biggest concern is how to get more and more young people to know and approach ca tru.
She confided: "In the past, I wanted to learn Ca Tru because it was very difficult because no one wanted to teach me. The teachers and artisans who came before were all old, and this subject was often only taught within the family. But for me, I just hope to give everything to preserve the soul and national culture. Therefore, I opened a free class, I just hope that young people know that he is still here, and that if he has knowledge, he can always come and learn Ca Tru singing".
Maintaining free classes is not easy as artisans have to spend their own effort, time and money. However, for her, just seeing that her students love and are passionate about practicing Ca Tru becomes all the difficulties worth it.
Discussing the trend of combining ca tru with electronic music to reach young people, artist Van Mai affirmed the need to strictly follow the ancient singing style.
For artisans like me, even when I die, I have to keep the style of ancient singing, I have to keep the soul of each melody. We cannot mix the quintessence of the ancients with other music genres, because that will lose the nature and beauty of the ca tru in particular, as well as folk art in general, she shared.
She emphasized that the preservation of ca tru needs to focus on training a new generation of artisans, encouraging traditional performances and creating conditions for this sport to have a suitable development space.
She also expressed sympathy for the younger generation when they had to prioritize learning a profession that could bring in income to ensure their lives, something that those who were at the forefront of the vocal profession always struggled with. According to her, only with strong support from cultural organizations, local authorities and the cooperation of young people who love art and ca Tru can they survive and develop.
