Hoàng Vân

July 24, 1930 – February 4, 2018

Hanoï, French Indochina [now Vietnam]

Hoàng Vân (24 July 1930, Hanoi – 4 February 2018) was a Vietnamese songwriter and composer. His birth name is Lê Văn Ngọ. He is best known as a composer during the two Indochina wars. He was a soldier in the Dien Bien Phu battle, before being sent for training in European classical music at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing by the end of the first Indochina war. After his return to Vietnam, Hoàng Vân became the conductor of the Radio Orchestra (Voice of Vietnam), as well as a lecturer at the composition faculty of the Ha Noi Conservatory of Music (now the Vietnam National Academy of Music) until 1989. He was also a member of the Vietnam Musicians Association and worked there until 1996. Hoàng Vân was known by the public through his songs, but he also composed symphonies (notably Thành Đồng Tổ quốc, The Bronze Citadel of my Fatherland), in 1960), choirs, instrumental ensemble, scores for films and plays...