Words and Music Bring Anne Chamberlain to Her Hanoi Home

CORNWALL — Anne Chamberlain loves to travel abroad. She has been to lots of places, but never thought Vietnam would be one of them.

"I protested the war. It’s not someplace I thought of as wanting to see. I wouldn’t want to go there and be the ugly American," Chamberlain said.

She had just finished a talk and slide show at the United Church of Christ in Cornwall in December, where she spoke glowingly of what has become her summer home: the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

Chamberlain is the music director at the church. She graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School. She has given piano lessons to countless local children and adults, and has performed in prestigious settings and concerts in the United States and Europe.

When most people think of her, they no doubt think music. So it was surprising to hear Chamberlain first traveled to Hanoi in 2003 to be a volunteer editor.

It took some urging from friends who worked in Hanoi and knew of a need for editors at a small publication, The Gioi (The World).

The magazine about Vietnamese culture was routinely translated from Vietnamese into English. It doesn’t always translate well, and her job was to correct the writing style.

While she found the editing somewhat tedious, she was thrilled with the chance to spend her days with Vietnamese citizens who spoke English.

She has become a part of their lives, watching two of them marry each other, and another have a baby.

"It was such a great opportunity to get to know the language and the customs. When I travel, I like to pretend I live there. I don’t like to be seen as a tourist. I try to blend in and learn all I can about the culture. If I’m in Italy, I try to look Italian. It wasn’t so easy in Hanoi, especially because I am tall."

Her approach was to rent a place and buy and eat the local food. Mornings would find her breakfasting on the sidewalk with the locals, where vendors would serve fare such as vegetable soup. They would remove their little stoves and plastic stools before the shops opened.

"I have found people the world over are kind and helpful if you show them respect and an interest in their culture. They loved that I ate their food — and it really was very good," Chamberlain said.

Many of the dishes served on the streets are portable, wrapped not in paper but banana leaves.

Chamberlain was smitten.

When it comes to getting around, Chamberlain avoids taxies: "You identify yourself as a rich foreigner." She prefers to go "on a shoestring"and adds with a laugh that she has no choice.

She is often the only American on city buses, where a conductor (and chivalry) keep things very civil. She is always guaranteed a seat.

"The last time I was offered a seat on a bus, I was pregnant in New York City."

She has forced herself to ride on the back of one of the motorbikes that fill the streets, even though they are dangerous. (Chamberlain was in an accident her first summer there.)

She has discovered how to communicate without language, and now knows that many Vietnamese want to practice their English as much as she wants to learn their language. It certainly speeds up the learning process.

What Chamberlain was surprised to find in Hanoi is now her reason for heading back every summer: "I loved the people I worked with, but I didn’t want to edit for two months. I wanted to do what people there do."

She discovered that when the French colonized Vietnam, they introduced Western music, then contemporary, now classical. They built great concert halls and Hanoi boasts no fewer than three symphony orchestras, and a ballet company.

Connecting to people through music has always been important to her, and the opportunity to do with people in Hanoi what she does at home has been amazing for her.

It began with Chamberlain and her friends in Cornwall raising $3,000 to buy a piano for a talented Vietnamese pianist. She has since become involved in chamber music concerts. There have been donations of music scores. She has taken on the goal of expanding their exposure to the great composers.

"Language can be a barrier when we’re organizing a concert or I’m teaching a piece of music, but so often music overcomes that."

Until now, Chamberlain has never known what music she will be performing until she gets to Hanoi.

Last summer found her accompanying six singers from Vietnam and Sweden, who performed a German lieder.

Next summer will be different. Hanoi 2007 means three concerts: an instrumental; accompanying Vietnamese Opera and Ballet Company singers; and one with Swedish tenor Patrick Forsman.

Concerts, in American dollars, are very inexpensive to produce in Hanoi. Chamberlain accepts payment because it is proper, but said it is obvious she doesn’t do it for the money. The work she puts in comes to about 10 cents per hour.

What she has done is establish a fund, with the Cornwall UCC as the nonprofit to accept donations, called the "Friends of Chamber Music, Hanoi."

None of the contributed funds go toward Chamberlain’s travel or living expenses.

Donations, made payable to "United Church of Christ, Cornwall," may be sent to Chamberlain at 24 Bald Mountain Road, Cornwall Bridge, CT 06754.

Any size donation is appreciated and checks should be made payable to "United Church of Christ, Cornwall."