WELCOMING NEW YEAR - Violinist Cao Hoàng Linh will perform Mendelssohn’s violin concerto at the HCM City Opera House on January 3. Photo courtesy of HBSO

HCM CITY — The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will host a concert at the Opera House on January 3 to celebrate the New Year holiday.

The highlight of the concert will be two masterpieces by German composer Felix Mendelssohn and Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.

Violinist Cao Hoàng Linh will perform Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64, known as Mendelssohn’s last concerto.

The three-movement concerto was written from 1838-1844 and was first performed in Leipzig, Germany in 1845.

Born in Moscow in 2006, Linh returned to Việt Nam to join the Việt Nam National Music Academy when he was seven.

He has studied with Meritorious Artist Bùi Công Duy, Việt Nam’s leading violin soloist, and has participated in masterclasses in the US and Israel.

Linh won top prizes at international competitions in Russia, Thailand, the UK and Greece, and was invited to perform at Royal Albert Hall in London and the Vietnam Connection Music Festival.

TICKLING THE IVORIES - Pianist Trần Lê Bảo Quyên will present a piano concerto by Prokofiev at the concert. Photo courtesy of HBSO

Pianist Trần Lê Bảo Quyên will present Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, op. 16 written by Prokofiev.

Prokofiev worked on his composition before the First World War but the score was lost in a fire. He reconstructed the work in 1923 and first performed it in 1924.

Born in 1994 in Hà Nội, Quyên begin studying piano when she was five years old.

She earned a Bachelor's Degree at the Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt (Darmstadt Academy of Music) in 2018, and a Master's Degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts) in 2021.

Quyên is studying under the instruction of Finnish classical pianist Henri Sigfridsson and German pianist Sabine Simon.

The concert will also include Overture from Semiramide, an opera in two acts by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, featuring HBSO’s symphony orchestra.

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

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