The Vietnam National Symphony and Orchestra will perform under the baton of conductor Tetsuji Honna. (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The VietnamNational Symphony and Orchestra (VNSO) together with guest musicians AmericanGrace Ho and Vietnamese Bui Cong Duy will be performing classical pieces at theannual Toyota Concert in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The concert which begins at 8pm at the HanoiOpera House on August 10-11 and at the HCM Opera House on August 14, aims tobring international level music to audiences with a performance of J.Brahms’sDouble Concerto by cellist Ho and violinist Duy.
Cellist Ho is an active soloist and chambermusician in the US and Asia. She has achieved numerous awards including firstprize at the Manhattan School of Music Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition in2011, winner of the University of North Texas Concerto Competition in 2007, anda silver medal at the Crescendo Music Awards in 2007. She is currently a Doctorof Musical Arts candidate at the Manhattan School of Music.
Ho has performed in prestigious concerthalls such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall in New York,Meyerson Symphony Centre in Dallas, Taiwan National Concert and Recital Halls,and HCM Opera House with the orchestras such as the Lewisville Lake SymphonyOrchestra, Manhattan School of Music Philharmonic Orchestra and University ofNorth Texas Chamber Orchestra.
She is a founding member of the UlyssesQuartet which won the grand prize and gold medal winner at the 2016 FischoffCompetition and second prize at the 9th Osaka International Chamber MusicCompetition. Ho is also a principal cellist for the Miami Symphony.
"This is the first time the VNSO willperform with soloist Ho," said the orchestra’s violin master Le Hoang Lan."I have a chance to perform with Ho in HCM City and I think her cellosound is very sweet.
"The VNSO has performed DoubleConcerto before with different soloists but each soloist inspires us in his orher own way. With different soloists the orchestra will have different emotionsto play the piece," Lan said.
Duy, who began playing the violin at theage of four under the instruction of his father and violinist Prof Bui CongThanh, is a graduate of the Tchaikovsky National Music College in Moscow.
He has won top prizes at internationalcompetitions, including first prize and a gold medal at the 3rd InternationalTchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in1997.
He has performed as a soloist withorchestras worldwide including the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, Saint-PetersburgKapella Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker,TrondheimSolisten, and Busan Philharmonic Orchestra in countries includingGermany, Italy, Switzerland and Norway.
He is currently deputy-director of the VietnamNational Academy of Music.
By combining a violin and cello for thesolo portions of Double Concerto, Brahms was able to create a "super"stringed instrument with sonority and range that neither alone could offer. Itwas composed in the summer of 1887, and first performed on October 18 of thatyear in Cologne, Germany.
The concert also features Beethoven’sSymphony No7 which was the seventh of the composer’s nine symphonies. Beethovenremains one of the most well-known composers in the modern world. Hissymphonies number only nine; each one unique, each one preparing the way forthe next.
Toyota Concert 2018 will be led byconductor Tetsuji Honna.
All proceeds will be used to support theToyota scholarship for young Vietnamese musical talents.-VNS/VNA
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