Tam Thi Pham (b. 1990) is a Vietnamese multimedia composer, improviser, and performer based in Hamburg, Germany. By merging technology and tradition, poetics and politics, and the sonic and visual realms, Pham creates an integrated mode of expression where music and performance are indivisible parts.
Pham has delved into the unique sounds and extended techniques of the dan bau, a traditional Vietnamese instrument, incorporating them into free improvisation and composition. She is also a dan bau teacher at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, inspiring her students to explore the instrument’s vast expressive potential. Her artistic journey is a quest to explore individuality while seeking connection with the broader social environment.
“Experimentation allows me to push the boundaries of what music can be, creating a dynamic and ever-evolving artistic practice,” Pham explains. This approach drives her to continuously innovate and explore new sonic landscapes.
Her works have been featured at festivals in Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Hungary, Germany, France, and Serbia, demonstrating the wide-reaching appeal of her innovative compositions.
Tam Thi Pham (*1990) is a Vietnamese multimedia composer, improviser and performer living in Hamburg. She completed her Bachelor of Musicology at the Vietnam National Academy of Music, a program in New Compositional Techniques at the University of Music and Theater Hamburg with Prof. Helmut Erdmann and Master in Multimedia Composition with Prof. Dr. Georg Hajdu, Prof. Dr. Gordon Kampe and Prof. Dr. Alexander Schubert.
Ms. Pham participated in many different professional courses on improvisation, contemporary music and composition organized by the Domdom – The Hub For Experimental Music & Art, Vietnam and SPIIC ensemble, Hamburg. In 2016 she was awarded a 3-month artist scholarship from the Goethe Institute for German language and music courses in Hamburg, Germany. She was the founder of DomDom – Contemporary and Experimental Music club in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Her works are a journey of exploring individuality in an attempt to connect with the surrounding social environment. She is trying to build a way of expression in which music and performance are two indivisible parts.
Tam Thi Pham plays electronic music, objects and Dan Bau (traditional Vietnamese instrument). One of her main interests is working with choreographers and dancers both as an improviser and as a composer. One aspect of this made networked music performance a focus of her current works (2020-), with the “2×2 WindowS” project (a collaboration with Japanese dancer Minori Sumiyoshiyama) garnering a lot of attention in Asia (Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia) and her “here&there” project being awarded funding and support from Goethe Institute in Hanoi. Another big interest of Tam Thi Pham lies in microtonal music, which she sees as both an expressive element and a research tool, helping her immerse herself into the rich culture of traditional Vietnamese music and transform it into a new, contemporary language and forms.
Besides her activities as a composer and a performer, she was also very active as an organizer of various discussions on contemporary music and art and concerts in Hanoi and Hamburg. She has also been participating at festivals in Vietnam, Germany, Japan, Indonesia and Serbia. such as: “Hanoi Sound Stuff Festival”, Hanoi, 2014; “Hanoi New Music Festival”, Hanoi, 2013 and 2018; “Beyond Sound” – a series of concerts of experimental music, Heritage space, Hanoi; 2016, 2017 and 2018; “Dance and music camp” with composer Heine Goebbels, Hanoi 2018; “New Music Festival”, Lüneburg, 2016, 2018 – 2021; “Blurred edges” festival, Hamburg, 2019, 2021; “41. International study week for contemporary music”, Hamburg, 2019 ; “next_generation 8.0 and 8.5” festival, Karlsruhe, 2019 and 2021; “Dance fest” Hanoi, 2019; “46.New Music Festival-Portrait Concert: Tam Thi Pham” at HfMT, Hamburg, 2020; Misch Masch festival, NPO Dance Box, Japan 2021; Exhibition “Zemljišta: situacije i dokumenta” (EN: “Grounds: situations and documents) at Gallery ”Jovan Popović” in Opovo, Serbia, 2021; “here&there” in reconnect – program of Goethe Institute in Hanoi, 2021; Indonesian Dance festival (2021); TAOI/ II, 2019 and TAOI (The Art of Improvisation) 2021, TAOI/ II, 2023 ...
Residency: 2018; FAMLAB Residency 2018 (a programme under the British Council’s Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth Project). Guess artist in TPAM festival, Japan, 2020 organized by Japan foundation.
The “Lost” – one of Ms. Pham’s improvisation music works, has been chosen to be a part of the “Synthesis Album Vol. 1”. This album has been published by the Urban Art Berlin and it collected sound works from female composers all over the world who professionally work in the sonic field. Ms. Pham’s piece titled “Sadness with the sea” has been on the album “Emergence” which was released by the British label Flaming Pines.