From Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to Boston, Gen Z saxophonist An Tran has “cooked up” an album with a main ingredient: her global personality and identity. 

Tran, a rising fourth-year music production and engineering major at Berklee College of Music, released her first EP, “AGAIN,” June 6, consisting of six songs. 

Tran wrote and produced the album over the span of two years. Her title song, “AGAIN,” was written in 2023, and the rest were composed in May 2024, an emotional period in Tran’s life. Whether she was feeling sorrow or relief, Tran brought her perception of recurring emotions  to her audience. 

As a recipient of the Lamond GenNext Award, Tran brings her music beyond regional borders, bouncing between the sophisticated Boston music scene and her Vietnamese heritage.  

Tran has also been making her mark on international stages, including at the 2023 WeChoice Award show, a Vietnamese annual cultural award, where she was nominated for Rising Artist of the year.  

In an interview with The Huntington News, Tran spoke about her music journey, focusing on cultural legacy and envisioning the future as a young, multi-talented saxophonist.  

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

The Huntington News: How did you start playing saxophone? 

Tran: 

I started playing sax when I was 9. My dad is a well-known sax player in Vietnam, but he never let me play the saxophone. He said that this instrument is not feminine for girls to play.

It took me a while to convince [my father] that I like this instrument and I can do it. When anyone stops you from doing something, it makes you want to do it more. I was just like “I want to play this instrument, and you are not stopping me.” 

HN: Being in a male-dominated field, what have you learned about femininity when playing the saxophone?

Tran: Any instrument is for everyone. We should not define gender for the instrument that we play. For me, the sound of the sax is what really pulls me into the instrument. If you think of a sax player, people imagine a man in a suit with a hat playing the sax in a jazz club. For me, I think of it as its sound. It’s just fluid. 

HN: How do you bring your personality on stage, from a big orchestra to small crowds?

Tran: Music is a language by itself, and everybody speaks it differently. That applies to the instrument too. When I learned the saxophone, I learned it from my dad. He is a guy, but I have my own way to talk through my instrument, especially [when] it’s not verbalized. I’m basically singing through my saxophone — the way that it sounds, the way that I play it.

HN: Do you have any saxophone marker, a musician’s signature in the song, that tells the audience that, “Oh, An is performing?”

Tran: I really love playing soft and melodic songs that have a lot of emotions. I actually was talking to my friends about this the other day too: There are so many great saxophone players, better than me, with more techniques and skills. But the most important thing for me when playing the saxophone is the emotion of the song. I pick the songs that bring a story, and I can help translate that.  

HN: What specific musical technique do you use to express Vietnamese personality in a song?

Tran: There is a certain sound that belongs to Vietnam that I grew up with that is in my system. Vietnamese music uses a lot of pentatonic scale. I use that a lot in my songs and the way that I play.  

HN: Stepping away from the saxophone, how do you carry the Vietnamese culture, your identity, through the crowd? 

Tran: I left Vietnam when I was 14 to go to school in the states, and I am 21 now. It’s been a good while, and I have always told my friends, the people that I met, about my country. [I’m] very proud of being Vietnamese. I present myself as a bilingual Vietnamese and someone who learns and adapts from other people from different places in the world. I have always tried to express my Vietnamese identity to everybody. 
HN: Boston itself has a very diverse music landscape. How are you liking it as a place to build up your career?

Tran: I love it. That’s why I still stay here. Going to Berklee, there are so many international students — mostly international students if I’m not wrong. I get to see what I have not seen before. [There is] very different music that I have never heard before, and it amazes me in so many ways. It inspires me a lot too. 

HN: I, too, am an international student from Vietnam. I find we carry ourselves and present our identity very well because of our upbringing, making an effort to look out for each other. How are you finding affinity in this expansive Boston community?

Tran: I have a lot of Vietnamese friends here in Boston. My first year here, I did not know a lot of people outside of my school, so I surrounded myself with Vietnamese friends at Berklee. But then I started to go out more, and I found out that there is a huge community of Vietnamese people here. 

Repping Vietnam is something I have always tried to do. Shout out to my dad, because he was the first Vietnamese [student] at Berklee who went with a full scholarship. After he came back, he always bragged about being Vietnamese in Boston, but I think I want to change something. When I asked some people about Vietnam, all they mentioned was the war, pho, bánh mì — I feel like there is so much more than just that. Vietnamese culture is beautiful, and it’s so rich and powerful. I actually successfully convinced so many people to travel to Vietnam. My friends would see my story and said, “I’m going next summer,” and they did and they want to come back. 

HN: What does the Vietnamese legacy look like in your music journey? 

Tran: I started writing songs in English, but recently I have been releasing songs in Vietnamese. I’m doing songs in both [languages]. My EP is in English, but the one after that will be in Vietnamese to show everyone that this is me as an artist. I basically bounce between places [the U.S. and Vietnam] — living in two worlds. 

HN: How do you feel about your current artistic journey? What plans do you have for the future?
Tran: There are things that I have achieved, but I always want to work harder to get somewhere else, not somewhere further. I’m planning on releasing music and playing more shows. I plan to play at least one to two shows per semester when I’m in Boston. I see myself living in both worlds. I really enjoy this life I have right now. I appreciate it a lot. Staying in one place drives me crazy. I want to move to either New York or Los Angeles. and then go home for the breaks again.