Please SAVE-THE_DATE to join VCSA in spectacular evening with the famous and talented visually impaired Nguyen, Duc Dac featuring his newest songs and composition. The purpose of the event is to release his second CD "Gã Điên Trên Đồi Hoang" (Old vagabond on the deserted hill) and introduce Dat Nguyen again to the Houston community. All the proceed of the event will be designated to the Camp Len Duong 2009 project.

Date: Friday January 30, 2009 at 8:00pm
Place: Heinen Theater, Houston, Texas
Ticket prices: VIP $50, Regular $30

Tickets can be purchased at:

Phuong My Video (Southwest)
Thien Nga Bookstore (Downtown)
Optical Lincoln Green (Northwest)
VCSA Center (Southwest) - 281-933-8118

Nguyễn Đức Đạt’s Bio

Dat Nguyen was born in 1970 in Viet Nam, blind from birth and orphaned at age five. He began his music studies at age eleven, playing drums, and became interested in classical music two years later. In 1988, a friend introduced him to the recordings of Andres Segovia, and an immediate enchantment with the guitar and its music led him to decide to devote his life to studying and performing on the classical guitar.

Dat and his younger sister came to the United States in 1991 under the auspices of the ODP, since Dat's father had been an American serviceman. For the next two and a half years, Dat had little opportunity for formal study of the guitar. In 1993, still in high school, he was a prize-winning guitarist in the Disney Creativity Challenge. Later that year, he enrolled as a guitar performance major at California State University, Fullerton, under the direction of David Grimes.

In 1994, Dat won the Southern California ASTA Solo Guitar Competition, and went on to win first prize at the Califonia state finals. An extensive 1995 article in the Orange County Register on his life and achievements led to many performance invitations, including a showcase at the Westminster Mall's Asian New Year's Festival in 1996. The same article also inspired a feature article subsequently published in the March, 1997 issue of the Reader's Digest.

While working to complete his college studies, Dat performs regularly for audiences throughout southern California. In November, 1996 he was presented on the Multi-Cultural Arts Series in San Juan Capistrano, where he was the first Vietnamese artist to be so recognized. He was one of the artists presented on the Guest Artist Series at Pacific Union College in November, 1997.

Dat was a California representative and a national finalist in the 1996-1997 Very Special Arts Program, sponsored by Panasonic. In April of 1997 he was the feature performer at the "Imagine This" Festival at Main Place in Santa Ana.

In June, 1997 Dat was the "headliner" for the "Informally Yetits" program at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, offering ten performances over two weeks to a variety of audiences ranging from young children to the Arts Center Founders. In July 1997, he performed in a spedal "Young Soloists Showcase" at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. He has been selected for the "From the Center" outreach program that takes artists and their music to many southland schools.

Dat has performed with the Philharmonic Society Youth Orchestra at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and at Los Angeles' Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. He has completed a Bachelor's degree in Classical Guitar Performance at California State University, Fullerton (May, 1999). He performs frequently with "Inner Vision," a guitar quartet that specializes in original music with a flamenco and Latin flavour.

Dat's goal is to continue building a career as a concert guitarist, composer and teacher. He has been very active in the Southern California Vietnamese community, raising substantial funds for the Vietnamese Refugee Fund in 1996. Dat was selected by the Orange County Register as one of fifteen people representing the varied aspects of Orange County culture at the close of the millennium.