US conductor to perform at Opera House

American maestro Hector Guzman and Vietnamese-American violinist Vu Viet Chuong will perform at a concert featuring operatic works and songs from movie soundtracks at the HCM City Opera House on October 29.
US conductor to perform at Opera House ảnh 1Maestro of the US Hector Guzman will lead the “From Sergei Rachmaninov to John Williams” concert at the HCM City Opera House (Photo courtesy of HBSO)
HCM City (VNA) – American maestro Hector Guzmanand Vietnamese-American violinist Vu Viet Chuong will perform at a concertfeaturing operatic works and songs from movie soundtracks at the HCM City OperaHouse on October 29.

The “From Sergei Rachmaninov to John Williams” concert willopen with the overture of the operetta Candide with music by the late Americanconductor Leonard Bernstein. The operetta is an adaptation of the 1759 novel ofthe same name by French author Voltaire.

Songs from movie soundtracks include work from Americancomposer John Williams: Theme, Jewish Town and Remembrances from StevenSpielberg’s film Schindler’s List; The Chairman’s Waltz from Rob Marshall’sfilm Memoirs of a Geisha; and Tango from Martin Brest’s film Scent of a Woman.

Williams won five Oscars, four Golden Globes, seven BritishAcademy Film Awards and 22 Grammy Awards for his compositions. He was the firstfilm score composer to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the AmericanFilm Institute in 2016.

His best-known compositions are for the films Star Wars,Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones.

Violist Chuong will perform in the first part of the concertwith musicians from the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

Chuong earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violinperformance from the University of Houston, and a doctorate from the Universityof North Texas.

He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in the US andVietnam, including the San Angelo Symphony, Odysseus Chamber Orchestra, theRichardson Symphony Orchestra, Hanoi Symphony Orchestra and HBSO. He has alsoperformed at international music festivals in the US, UK and Brazil.

The concert’s second part will feature Symphony No 2 in EMinor, op 27 by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov, one of the most popularcomposers of the late Romantic period.

The work appeared in the trailer of the 2015 Oscar bestmovie winner, Birdman, by Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Maestro Guzman, who is now music director of the CorpusChristi Symphony Orchestra in Texas, has served as director of the San AngeloSymphony, Plano Symphony and Irving Symphony.

He has been a guest conductor for prestigious ensembles inthe US, Mexico, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Guzman is also a successful organist, performing at venuessuch as the Meyerson Symphony Hall in the US, Morelia Cathedral in Mexico andChartres Cathedral in France, and at international music festivals in Spain andMexico.

In 2008, he was granted the Mozart Medal, one of the highestmusical honours, by the Embassy of Austria and Mozart Academy in Mexico City.

He also received the 2014 Sigma Alpha Iota InternationalMusic Fraternity’s National Arts Associate award.

The concert will begin at 8 pm at the Opera House at 7 Lam SonSquare in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue’s box office.-VNA
VNA

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