Free ca tru performance brings refined Tet-era music to Hanoi Old Quarter
As Tet approaches, a free Old Quarter concert invites international and younger audiences to rediscover ca tru, one of Vietnam’s most sophisticated musical traditions.
THE HANOI TIMES — Visitors to Hanoi during the 2026 Tet (Lunar New Year) will have a chance to experience one of Vietnam’s most refined traditional art forms through a free ca tru performance in the Old Quarter.
A traditional ca tru performance features a ca nuong (vocalist), a dan day (long-necked lute) player, and a phach percussionist. Photo: Vietnam News Agency
The program, titled “Han Lap Nha Ca”, will take place at 8 PM on February 12 at the Center for Arts and Culture, 22 Hang Buom Street, Hoan Kiem Ward.
The performance will feature artists from the Long Thanh Ca Tru Club, acclaimed ca tru performer Hoang Khoa and artisans from the Lo Khe Ca Tru Club in Dong Anh Ward, Hanoi.
The event forms part of the Vietnamese Tet – Tet Street 2026 cultural series, organized by the Hoan Kiem Lake and Hanoi Old Quarter Management Board in coordination with the Dinh Lang Viet Club. The performance is open to the public free of charge.
Han Lap Nha Ca, which evokes elegant songs performed during the final winter days of the lunar year, aims to introduce ca tru in its most classical form to residents and visitors, particularly younger audiences.
The setting recreates the atmosphere of traditional Hanoi Tet celebrations, recalling a period when ca tru played a central role in the city’s intellectual and ceremonial life.
During the program, folk artists will perform several classical ca tru styles, including thet nhac, the genre’s oldest and most ceremonial form; hat noi, known for its free-flowing structure favored by Confucian scholars; hat giai, where the vocalist performs alongside a dan day player; and ngam tho, a lyrical recitation accompanied by wooden clappers, drums and the dan day (Vietnamese three-stringed long-necked lute).
The vibrant space of Hanoi’s Centre for Arts and Culture at 22 Hang Buom Street. Photo: Hanoitourist.
Hanoi’s ca tru repertoire is known for its refined lyrics and disciplined musical structure, reflecting the aesthetics of earlier Tet seasons when scholars, officials and wealthy merchants patronized the art. The performance offers a glimpse of that cultural world within the city’s modern festive rhythm.
Once central to intellectual and ceremonial life in northern Vietnam, ca tru received international recognition in 2009, when UNESCO listed it as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
