Biography
Thu Le is an internationally awarded classical guitarist and a certified guitar teacher. She was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, and now lives in Bahrain.
Her repertoire spans the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and modern periods as well as Latin American music, extended by works inspired by regional traditions and cultures from around the world.
Her musical path began at the age of four under the guidance of her father Le Hanh. At five she gave her first public concert in Vietnam. At just seven she passed the entrance examination of the National Conservatory of Music in Hanoi, becoming the youngest student ever admitted to that institution.
She has taken masterclasses with internationally recognised guitarists including Manuel Barrueco, Nikita Koshkin, Hubert Käppel and Pavel Steidl.
Her concert activity has taken her to North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and she keeps a close connection to her roots with regular appearances in Vietnam.
In 2018 she performed and taught at the Guitar Foundation of America convention in Louisville. In 2019 she was a headline artist at the Roma Expo Guitar. She has appeared at numerous international guitar festivals as performer, teacher and jury member, among them the Joaquín Rodrigo Guitar Festival in Spain and the International Guitar Festival in Kolkata, India.
Alongside her solo work she collaborates regularly with orchestras, string quartets, singers, violinists, flautists and other guitarists. In 2021 she took part in Sergio Assad’s “The Walls”, a collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma and sixty leading classical guitarists from around the world. She currently tours North America with International Guitar Night and is a Savarez-supported artist.
Link: https://thuleguitarist.com
Two musical worlds
What sets Thu Le apart is the breadth of her musical identity. She is equally at home in the Western classical guitar canon and in Vietnamese traditional music adapted for the instrument. That is not a biographical footnote — it shapes her phrasing, her choice of tone colours and the freshness she brings to familiar repertoire.
Vietnamese traditional music carries a melodic expressiveness and a sensitivity to microtonal nuance that does not translate directly into the equal temperament of the classical guitar. That she negotiates this translation so readily says as much about her command of the instrument as about her understanding of the traditions she draws on.
Concerts at Siccas Guitars
Thu Le came to our studio in 2026 for a full concert. Her programme reached from Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco — the Italian composer who wrote close to a hundred works involving the guitar after meeting Andrés Segovia — through to Vietnamese traditional music. Programming the two side by side is unusual among concert guitarists, and it reads as a genuine artistic commitment rather than a gesture.
She played instruments from the Siccas Luthiers range, among them the Recital model, built to carry in a larger room while keeping the intimacy and nuance that distinguishes the classical guitar.
More to explore
For the wider repertoire, see our overview of famous classical guitar pieces and our guide to Francisco Tárrega. For a realistic view of the dedication the instrument asks for, read how long it takes to learn classical guitar. More players in our overview of great classical guitarists.
