Cellist Phan Do Phuc

 

Vietnamese cellist Phan Đỗ Phúc has enjoyed success in different parts of the world as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician. He has been appointed to be the guest principal cellist of many reputable orchestras, including the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, New York Classical Players Orchestra, Napa Valley Institute Orchestra, Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, and Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra. In 2020, after finishing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree with honor, Phuc returned to his hometown of Hanoi to join the Sun Symphony Orchestra as the Principal Cellist.

As an avid chamber musician, Phuc has collaborated with artists such as cellist Colin Carr, violinists Philip Setzer and Eugene Drucker, violist Larry Dutton of the Emerson String Quartet (one of the world premier chamber ensembles with 9 Grammy awards), bassoonist Frank Morelli (from Orpheus Chamber Orchestra) and flutist Carol Wincenc (from the Juilliard School). He was an active member of the Stony Brook Baroque Ensemble, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Player, as well as a close collaborator with the Long Island Composer Alliance. Phuc is one of the founding members of the Trio de Novo, a New York-based piano trio that has been invited to perform at several prestigious venues in New York and served as the ensemble-in-residence of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, MI. Most recently, Phuc with his colleagues have won first prize at the Lauren V. Ackerman Chamber Music Competition, New York 2018, and 2nd prize with the Amici Piano Quartet at the Vietnam International Chamber Music Competition 2019. His latest chamber project involves the birth of Glanz String Quartet in the spring of 2020, with the goal of discovering and sharing great quartet works to Hanoians.

With a special passion for education, Phuc was on the faculty of the Stony Brook Adult Chamber Music Program, the Long Island Tutoring Academy and the Herald School of Music and Arts where he was also the assistant conductor. Most recently, his cello and piano students won first and second prizes at the New York International Young Performing Artists 2019 and performed at the Carnegie Hall, New York. He was the music director of the North Shore United Methodist Church in Wading River, NY and St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Patchogue, NY where he directed and coached the church choir and praise band. In the summer of 2020, Phuc and his colleagues Luu Duc Anh and Nguyen Phu Son established the Inspirito Chamber Music and Orchestral Institute, with the mission to popularize, as well as provide advanced training of orchestral instruments, chamber music and orchestra playing in Hanoi.

On his path to explore the connections between classical music and other art forms, Phuc has collaborated with the contemporary dancer Amanda Hamps, to explore the intertwining worlds of Bach Cello Suites and modern dance. Other projects include his collaborations with Wonder Arts and Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA) in a dialogue between classical music and the artworks of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele; and with the Japanese singer Shihori, in her recently released album “Shihorism” – a mixture of Japanese modern pop and classical music elements. Schubert in a Mug (SiaM), Phuc’s spiritual child was born the summer 2020, to realize his vision of creating an experimental space for classical musicians and their audiences. In deciphering this rather unique harmony between the performers and listeners, one of SiaM’s important goals is to create a wholesome concert-going experience that touches both the listeners’ emotion and the intellect.

He started his cello study at the Vietnam National Academy of Music (known then as the Hanoi Conservatory of Music) in 2001 under the tutelage of Prof. Nguyễn Ngọc Hiền. Since 2007, he has received full scholarship to continue his study in Italy, then the United States until the completion of his doctoral degree in 2020. Professors whom he has had the privilege to study under include, Pietro Serafin (Conservatory of Trieste, Italy), Eric Kutz (University of Maryland, Washington D.C), and Colin Carr (Stony Brook University).