PERFECT PITCH: Soprano Phạm Khánh Ngọc, runner-up at the 2016 International Vocal Competition SLO-ASEAN in Singapore, will perform in two concerts to celebrate Christmas at the HCM City Opera House on December 16 and 17. Photo courtesy of HBSO

HCM CITY – The choir and soloists from the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will perform at the “X’mas Concert” at the Opera House on December 16 and 17.

The event will open with A Christmas Festival, a composition by American composer Leroy Anderson performed by HBSO’s orchestra.

Soprano Phạm Khánh Ngọc, runner-up at the 2016 International Vocal Competition SLO-ASEAN in Singapore, will continue the concert with excerpts Exsultate jubilate and Alleluja from vocal musical composition Exsultate, jubilate (Exult, rejoice) written by Mozart in 1773.

Soprano Duyên Nguyệt will sing Maria Wiegenlied (Mary’s Lullaby), a German Christmas song with music by Max Reger and words by Martin Boelitz, and then sing classic carol O Holy Night with tenor Đào Mác.

The tenor will also perform It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, a Christmas song written in 1951 by American composer Meredith Willson.

The concert will also feature Variations on Jingle Bells, and For unto Us a Child is Born and Hallelujah from Messiah, an English-language oratorio composed by Handel in 1741, performed by the HBSO choir.

Meanwhile, the orchestra will present A Christmas Scherzo, Sleigh Ride, and Christmas at the Movies.

Korean Children Voices will end the concert with songs, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, Three Holiday Songs, and What a Wonderful World.

CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS: Conductor Trần Nhật Minh, head and chorusmaster of the HBSO Opera, will lead “X’mas Concert” at the Opera House. Photo courtesy of HBSO

Conductor Trần Nhật Minh, head and chorus master of the HBSO Opera, will lead the concert.

Minh graduated in chorus conduction from the Magnitogorsk State Conservatory (Russia) and then earned his Master’s of Art at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 2007.

In 2012, he completed a conducting course at the Italian Conducting Academy.

He won several top prizes at international competitions such as the International Competition for Young Conductors in Vladivostok in 2003, and the International Choral Festival organised by Interkultur, the world’s leading organiser of international choir competitions and festivals, in Hội An in 2014.

The two concerts will begin at 8pm at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue. — VNS