Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Gio Xanh (Green Wind), the first community choir in Vietnam, will hold its annual concert with the theme Viet Nam Thuong Men (Loving Vietnam) this summer in the ancient royal capital city of Hue and Hanoi.
The concert is slated for June 29 in Hue city, the central province of Thua Thien-Hue and October 12 to 13 in Hanoi. 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 Nguyen Hai Yen 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 repertoire includes a series of familiar melodies, including the folk songs Bac Kim Thang (Home Sweet Home) and Ly Ngua O (Singing about Black Horses), Mua roi (Raining), Nguoi Ha Noi (Hanoians) and Xin Chao Viet Nam (Hello Vietnam).
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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'rung, 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 Gio Xanh's modern spirit and integration with the world.
The 'journey' of Gio Xanh is not only about music but more importantly about inspiration for the audience, according to Yen.
"With pride as a community choir, Gio 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 Yen said.
For this year's concert, the organising board said it has reserved 400 to 500 seats for children from social protection centres in Hue city and Hanoi.
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 Hue to survey and introduce the concert's charitable goals. They had also visited the SOS Children's Village in Hue, where 60 orphans or abandoned children in extremely difficult circumstances are raised, and the Social Work and Child Protection Centre in Thua Thien-Hue 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, Gio 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 Vong Tron Xanh (The Green Circle) in Da Nang, Hanoi and Ha Long./.
