Finnish conductor Kalle Kuusava will lead a concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of Finland at the HCM City Opera House on December 19.

Finnish conductor Kalle Kuusava will lead a concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of Finland at the HCM City Opera House on December 19. — Photo courtesy of HBSO

The concert will feature Violin Concerto in D Minor, op 47 and Symphony No 2 in D Major, op 43 by Jean Sibelius, the famous Finnish composer and violinist.

Vietnamese-American violinist Vu Viet Chuong will open the show with the concerto, which was written in 1904 and is known as one of the most performed and recorded compositions of the 20th century.

Chương, who received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas, will perform with the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

The violinist is artistic director of the Vietnam Connection Music Festival and the Dallas-based International Chamber Players.

He has been a guest of numerous American orchestras such as San Angelo Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the VASCAM Ensemble.

The HBSO orchestra will continue the concert with the symphony, which Sibelius started to write in the winter of 1901 in Italy, and finished in 1902 in Finland.

In 2013, Kuusava won the European Conductors Competition in Oslo, and was named laureate of the Evgeny Svetlanov Competition in Paris in 2014.

He completed his master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

He took part in the French tour of the Odense Symphony Orchestra and worked in the Zurich Opera in the 2007-2008 season, and the Norwegian National Opera from 2008 to 2016.

The concert begins at 8pm at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue’s box office or www.ticketbox.vn. — VNS