Conductor Dong Quang Vinh will lead the orchestra (Photo: VietnamPlus) Hanoi (VNA) - About 30 Vietnamese musicians will join their Japanese colleagues in the Vietnam - Japan Dream Orchestra on a tour to Japan from October 2 -10.
This programme is part of activities to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan (1973-2023), strengthen people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, and pay tribute to tsunami and earthquake victims in Japan.
Addressing a press conference on August 22 in Hanoi, the organisation board said young piano prodigy Nguyen Viet Trung will perform a solo during the tour.
The orchestra members of Vietnam are selected from the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet Theater (VNOB), the Vietnam National Academy of Music (VNAM), and the Suc Song Moi (New Vitality) Bamboo Ensemble, while 30 Japanese artists are selected from the top 6 renowned symphony orchestras of Japan.
At the press conference (Photo: VietnamPlus) For the first time in history, a symphony orchestra consisting of Vietnamese and Japanese artists will perform under the baton of a Vietnamese conductor.
According to Matsuda Ayuko, director of the project, the artists will perform in Tokyo, Gunma, Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi, and Nara.
Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi prefectures in the Tohoku region were most affected by the earthquakes and tsunami 12 years ago. Survivors of the earthquake and tsunami and Vietnamese families living in the area will be invited to the concerts.
As many as 100 invitation tickets will be reserved for families that were seriously affected by the earthquakes and tsunami, and Vietnamese families residing in these areas.
The tour is being held to commemorate those who have lost their lives due to natural disasters, while also shining a light of hope that the people in these areas, despite their losses and sorrows, will have a brighter and better future.
Conductor Dong Quang Vinh speaks at the press conference. (Photo: VietnamPlus) A votive concert will be performed at Todaiji Temple in Nara Prefecture where there was trade among Japanese and Vietnamese businessmen over a thousand years ago, Matsuda added.
Matsuda expressed the hope that the orchestra will be given opportunities to perform in Vietnam in the future.
The concert repertoire will include two Vietnamese pieces, Frederic Chopin's Concerto No1 for piano and the orchestra, and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (Symphony of Fate).
Vinh noted that the artists have only three days to rehearse together, but this is not difficult because symphonic music is a genre that requires players to follow the rules strictly, so they must always be precise with each note from the time they practice individually. Therefore, when they are put together in an ensemble, they are able to synchronize quite easily.
Vietnamese young pianist Nguyen Viet Trung (Photo provided by pianist Nguyen Viet Trung) Award-winning pianist Trung will play Concerto No1 with the orchestra at the concert. Trung was born in Hanoi and he has lived in Poland since childhood.
He achieved remarkable awards at international piano competitions such as the National Piano Festival “Chopin Interpretations of the Young” in Konin-Żychlin, the Polish National Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, and the Karlovac International Piano Competition in Croatia.
Having competed in the 20th International Chopin Piano Competition in 2021 and made it to the second round, Trung has made his name as a young piano talent touring not only Poland and Vietnam but around the world./.
