The choir's Việt Nam Thương Mến (Loving Việt Nam) concert schedule has been announced on its Facebook page.

Gió Xanh (Green Wind), the first community choir in Việt Nam, will hold its annual concert with the theme Việt Nam Thương Mến (Loving Việt Nam) this summer in the ancient royal capital city of Huế and Hà Nội.

The concert is slated for June 29 in Huế and October 12 to 13 in Hà Nội. This year there will be a special programme held to mark the choir's fifth anniversary, according to the event's organising board.

During this year's event, the choir — along with conductor Nguyễn Hải Yến and many guest artists — will perform 22 musical pieces that promise to be captivating and full of surprises, due to a new style of expression through multi-layered 'music colours'.

The Green Wind Choir and the organisers of the Green Circle 2023 concert gather for a photo at the Việt Nam National Academy of Music in Hà Nội. Photo from Facebook

The repertoire includes a series of familiar melodies, including the folk songs Bắc Kim Thang (Home Sweet Home) and Lý Ngựa Ô (Singing about Black Horses), Mưa rơi (Raining), Người Hà Nội (Hanoians) and Xin Chào Việt Nam (Hello Việt Nam).

The programme will also introduce a choral set composed by Vietnamese musicians for choir and symphony orchestra (a classic genre from Europe) combined with the t'rưng, a musical instrument of ethnic minority from the Central Highlands.

The choral set tells a story about water from the river and the sea, featuring a world dominated by a spirit of kindness, solidarity and love.

Audiences will also have chance to enjoy world-famous works such as Heal the World, If We Hold on Together, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Hana Wa Saku, which are staged to express Gió Xanh's modern spirit and integration with the world.

The 'journey' of Gió Xanh is not only about music but more importantly about inspiration for the audience, according to Yến.

"With pride as a community choir, Gió Xanh inherits all good things in the hearts of Vietnamese people through generations and many eras of life, like the flow of rivers. Therefore, the programme includes various regional folk songs, revolutionary and contemporary music works, foreign songs translated into Vietnamese lyrics and world classics," conductor Yến said.

For this year's concert, the organising board said it has reserved 400 to 500 seats for children from social protection centres in Huế City and Hà Nội.

The board believes that beautiful music in high-quality auditoriums will help bring emotions to disadvantaged children, enrich their souls and sow 'seeds of goodness' and faith in a better life.

Earlier, in mid-April 2024, representatives from the choir made a trip to Huế to survey and introduce the concert's charitable goals. They had also visited the SOS Children's Village in Huế, where 60 orphans or abandoned children in extremely difficult circumstances are raised, and the Social Work and Child Protection Centre in Thừa Thiên Huế Province.

Founded in September 2019, at first the choir had only 80 members. Now it has about 200 with the age ranging from six to 86.

This is the first community choir to organise its own concert as an annual event.

In the five years since its establishment, the choir has been actively involved in high-quality artistic programmes as well as community events.

During its shows in 2020, 2022 and 2023, Gió Xanh organised many non-profit concerts. More than 1,200 children from social protection centres were invited to the concerts and more than 100 of them participated in the performance with the choir.

Last year, the choral concert series showcased classical music with the theme Vòng Tròn Xanh (The Green Circle) in Đà Nẵng, Hà Nội and Hạ Long. VNS