Dinh Linh performs in front of a foreign audience at Truc Mai Concert

A small theater owned by a married musical pair has a big role to play in cultural preservation.

The husband and wife, both Meritorious Artists, are dedicated to preserving and promoting the art.

That’s why they opened a small theater at 104 Pham Viet Chanh Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District five years ago.

“I didn’t feel happy performing in restaurants as the diners paid more attention to their cooking than the music,” Mai said.

“So we decided to open our own concert hall, one where we could play to genuine lovers of traditional music.”

With bamboo and other wood furniture, bamboo blinds down some of the walls, and more than 20 musical instruments on prominent display, the décor of Truc Mai Home Concert suits the music well.

The musical performances and the cozy, intimate atmosphere has made it increasingly popular among foreigners, who make up the bulk of the audience every time.

“We like having foreigners here so that they can tell the world about our sparkling traditional music,” Linh said.

“We find that some of the tourists who come here are already avid fans of Vietnam’s traditional music and go to many concerts. Our job is to help them appreciate and understand it as deeply as possible,” Mai said.

To maximize the quality of the live music, Mai and Linh limit the number of people in the audience and only use an amplifier for the single-string dan bau (monochord).

Visitors get more than just stunning performances, they also get to hear talks by the owners and stories about the different musical instruments, and learn how to play them a little.

Indeed, many foreigners are keen to try their hand at playing the instruments.

“Some people have said that we’re only doing this for the money. It was hurtful at first but now we shrug them off,” Mai said.

“What’s wrong with using our natural talent and what we have learned through study to make a living? The important thing is that we are promoting our traditional music in its purest form,” she said.

It’s only a small place at the moment but they plan to turn their theater into a fully fledged club where fans of traditional music can congregate and enjoy their common interest.

Linh and Mai can play several instruments well like the single-stringed dan bau, the 36-stringed dan tam thap luc, the T’rung (bamboo windpipes popular in the Central Highlands) and the dan da (lithophone). But Linh’s strength is the bamboo flute and Mai’s is the dan tam thap luc.

Their band is called Tre Viet (Vietnamese bamboo) and is made up of artists and people from all walks of life.

Now that Truc Mai Home Concert is firmly established on the local music scene, Mai and Linh, both aged 45, are teaching their skills to a younger generation and inspiring a passion for traditional music in them.

Born into an artistic family, Mai fell in love with traditional music at a very young age.

When she was only 10 years old, she began learning to play the dan tam thap luc at the Hanoi Conservatory of Music.

In 1988, she found work with the Vietnam Singing and Dancing Theater before marrying her classmate Linh.

The couple moved to HCMC in 1992 and began working for the Bong Sen theater company.

Since they couldn’t live comfortably on their meager salaries, they had to sustain their main careers by playing in restaurants and nightclubs.

Linh, whose father is the celebrated flautist Dinh Thin, has since stopped working for Bong Sen to devote all his time to his own projects.

Mai holds a university degree in vocal studies and a master’s degree in traditional music teaching.

Their two sons are following in their parents’ footsteps, with one studying piano at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music and the other studying the bamboo flute in China.

Reported by Diem Thu