Philippines National Commission for Culture and Arts organized the Camp within the framework of the Gong and Bamboo Music Festival from November 23-December 1, 2015 in the mountain city of Sagada, Philippines. This camp and the festival brought together ten Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Singapore.  Attending the camp and festival were musicians (playing gongs, bamboo musical instruments), delegates, and researchers, to play and listen to traditional musical compositions. To promote the understanding and interaction between artists, each country participated in activities as follows:

+ Program 1: Introduction to musical instruments, features and illustrative performances of the monochord, t’rưng, k’ný, double-stringed lute, wind instruments.

+ Program 2: Concert of traditional ethnic orchestra with the Philippines folk music, commanded and directed by Dr. Ramon P. Santos for all countries represented.

+ Program 3: Group to study Philippines folk music. In particular, the group of Vietnam learned how to play gongs, tap the tube, blow the flute, and dance traditional dances with Artist Mr. Beng So Kong.

+ Program 4: Introduction by each nation about the culture, country and people. And there was a forty-five minute program to introduce tradi-tional music.

At the invitation of the Philippines National Commission for Culture and Arts, VIM sent a team of  artists to attend and perform at this camp and festival. The VIM group contributed a 45-minute art show, including 5 repertoires: Gongs concert, T’rưng solo, Monochor solo, flute of Mèo ethnic group, Văn singing. Ending the program it was a Philippines folk song.

This trip allowed each artist to study and exchange experiences on traditional music with artists from other countries. Thus, they found the proper direction to be able to integrate the international community and simultaneously to preserve the cultural identity of the nation.

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