Pham Tuan Hung went from glory to shame when his recently bestowed Talent Prize 2006 was revoked by the Danish embassy in Vietnam on Wednesday. Denmark’s ambassador to Vietnam and chairman of CDEF, Peter Lysholt Hansen, has told local media that his organization has reversed its decision and will not offer the award to winner Pham Tuan Hung because he “did not respect copyright law.”
Along with the prize, Pham Tuan Hung had also won an education trip to Denmark for the composition “Summer Night”, yet now he won’t be packing his bags any time soon. As CDEF recently found out, his remix of electronic music was originally composed by English musician Robin Rimbaud in an earlier project named “Loi rao duong pho” (Street Calls) held by The British Council in 2003 in Hanoi.
The CDEF Talent Prize is awarded each year to an outstanding young Vietnamese artist. In 2006, the prize was awarded in the category of contemporary and experimental music composition in order to support the development of contemporary music and the exploration of new musical pastures. This year, another promising young Vietnamese artist will be identified and awarded the CDEF Talent Prize 2007 in the category of experimental short films. Contestants, bring your copyright documents.
