VietNamNet Bridge – A gala performance from the HCM City Ballet and Symphony Orchestra (HBSO) will grace the stage of the HCM City Opera House tomorrow, July 9.

The event, Contemporary Performance Dialogue, will feature music by Vu Viet Anh and Do Kien Cuong, both members of the Viet Nam Musicians' Association.

The show will open with Anh's Tranh Dong Ho (Dong Ho Folk Paintings), a work written for clarinet, vibraphone and the string quintet.

It will be performed by clarinetist Nguyen Tuan Loc and vibraphonist Huynh Vinh Phuc.

The musicians will play with violinists Tang Thanh Nam and Nguyen Truc Thuyen, violinist Bui Anh Son, cellist Nguyen Tan Anh and contrabass player Tran Duc Nguyen.

Anh began his professional career as a songwriter in 1998. His family sent him to New Zealand to study music in 2001.

He has returned home this year after finishing a master degree in music majoring in composition at the University of Waikato. He is a professional in composing instrumental music, soundtrack and the music for dance.

Anh works as marketing and performance manager of the HBSO. The concert will continue with Cuong's Thang Long (Thang Long Citadel), which will feature pianist Ly Giai Hoa and saxophonist Nguyen Tuan Loc.

After graduation from Ha Noi Music Conservatory, Cuong received a master's degree in music performance from Brooklyn College in New York State.

He has worked for the HBSO since 2006.

Young dancer Do Thi Hai Anh will perform Doi Thoai (Dialogue), a work that highlights contemporary dance, choreographed by Nguyen Phuc Hung.

Hung studied choreography at the Fontys Dance Academie in Holland and Paris Contemporary Dance Centre in France.

Dancer/choreographer Nguyen Phuc Hai will be featured in Hoi Tuong (Nostalgia).

The night will close with music by Tran Dinh Lang.

Monologue will be performed by 16-chord zither artist Nguyen Thi Hai Phuong, together with cellist Vo Dinh Khuan and oboist Nguyen Tien Loi.

The concert begins at 8pm tomorrow at the HCM City Opera House, 7 Lam Son Square, District 1.

Tickets, which cost VND150,000 (US$7) to VND250,000 each, are available at the theatre's box office.

* Vietnamese bamboo construction honoured in the US

Bamboo Wing, a construction at the Dai Lai tourism site in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, has been awarded the International Architecture Award by the Chicago Athenaeum museum.

It resembles a bird's wing and is made from bamboo in order to send a message of using environmentally friendly materials.

In 2008, Bamboo Wing was among five constructions in the final list of the annual World Architecture Festival in Barcelona.

Vo Trong Nghia, the designer, was born in 1976 in the central province of Quang Binh. He studied architecture at the University of Tokyo. In 2011, he also received the Green Leadership Architecture Award in Asia for his Wind and Water bar, which is located in the southern province of Binh Duong.

The International Architecture Award is held annually, aimed at honouring new architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and urban planning. This year, the US won 14 awards, Australia and China 9, Japan 7 and France 5.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News