Musical hobby earns a trip to Carnegie Hall

Thu Nguyen plays the dan tranh, a Vietnamese zither. Photo / Brett Phibbs

You know if you bring your father close to tears, you have done something pretty special.

For 18-year-old Vietnamese student Thu Nguyen, who lives in Auckland, it was not anything to do with her studies, but her hobby.

The emotional response from her Ho Chi Minh-based father, Minh Nguyen, came after telling him she had taken first place in the American Protege International Music Talent Competition Spring 2015 after composing a piece of music with the dan tranh, a traditional Vietnamese 17-string zither.

It was no small feat; the competition was open to piano, wind, string, brass and traditional instruments and vocalists from all nationalities and countries.

Miss Nguyen, one of a group of winners, will travel to New York in May where she will play at the prestigious Carnegie Hall.

Miss Nguyen heard the good news last week and cannot stop smiling.

"It's really exciting. I never imagined that I would be going to New York.

"Everything has happened so suddenly and [playing in] Carnegie Hall is every musician's dream."

Her family was excited too.

"[My parents] were surprised. My father was about to cry."

It had been a long wait for the results. Participants submitted a video recording in December for the audition before the winners were announced last week.

Miss Nguyen has been in New Zealand for six months studying the two-year International Baccalaureate Diploma at Auckland International College.

She started to learn the zither when she was about 5 years old but later dropped the hobby. However, she picked it up again recently and had been fine-tuning her winning piece, Mua Thu Que Huong, or Autumn in Hometown.

She chose that piece as the hand movement was graceful and it reminded her of the beauty of the Vietnamese people and landscape.