VietNamNet Bridge – Tran Vuong Thach, director of HCMC Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) insists that ‘Art Festival Autumn Melodies’ will be upgraded into an biannual international arts festival for professional symphony, ballet and opera concerts and he promises it will be one of the biggest art events in the city for local and foreign academic music lovers.

Tran Vuong Thach, director of HBSO, speaks at a press conference at the HCMC Opera House on Tuesday.

“Eight years since its debut, the program now continues on a bigger scale with seven concerts from August 16 to 22, proving its expansion in quantity as well as quality,” he added at a briefing at HCMC Opera House on Tuesday.

Along with popular Vietnamese artists such as Bui Cong Duy, Nguyen Manh Duy Linh, Dao Nhat Quang, Dang Linh Nga and Nguyen Phuc Hung, the festival features two young talents from Moscow - Tran Dieu Linh and Tran Dieu An.

There are also a number of young artists from Spivakov foundation in Russia, including pianist Hinrich Alpers and conductor Christian Schumann from Germany and Norwegian choreographer Johanne Jakhelln Constant.

Thach said, in the past, city concerts often featured works of acclaimed international musicians such as Mozart, Beethoven, Johannes Brahms or Ecard Gried but today HBSO will bolster new works from local artists such as the music of Duy Linh, contemporary dance of choreographers Phuc Hung and Phuc Hai and talents of Vietnamese pianists, vocalists and dancers.

The highlight of this year’s festival is staging Vietnamese folk suite Dong Chay. “We want to bring Vietnamese folk genres onto the professional stage as it is as important as other academic genres,” Thach said, pledging that the festival will feature more works from local artists.

He emphasized that the festival will be very professional. “The attendance of well-known international artists will judge the event as international level, diversify the performances as well as bolstering art exchanges among artists and with audiences.”

Thach also said that the festival this year will hopefully be a successful opening to a new chapter for the HBSO to bring both Vietnamese and world talents to city audiences.

“I hope the festival will exist forever and develop strongly and it will add more genres of arts such as circus, jazz, electro music as well as self-made instruments, promising city audiences a music party from classic, traditional, folk to contemporary styles,” the director said.

The festival will open with a symphony concert with works by Bach, Carl Stamitz, and Vietnamese folk choir ‘Dong chay’ by composer Tran Manh Hung. The next day conductor Bui Cong Duy and Hanoi Ensemble will take charge of another symphony show, before the modern ballet ‘Touching the past’ on August 18, a concert by young talents from the Spivakov Foundation 24 hours later and ballet ‘Cinderella’ on August 20.

There will be a piano recital by Hinrich Alpers on August 21 and finally a symphony concert on the final night. All concerts will take place at 8 p.m. at the Opera House, 7 Lam Son Square downtown.

Tickets are available at the opera house, priced at VND650,000, VND400,000 and VND150,000. Students just pay VND150,000. For ticket bookings and delivery, call Ms Huong at 0989 874 517.

Source: SGT