French violinist Stephane Trần Ngọc will perform at “A Night of Spanish Music” concert at the HCM City Opera House on July 7. — Photo courtesy of HBSO

HCM CITY — The HCM City Ballet Symphony and Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will host the concert “A Night of Spanish Music”, by solo violinist French-born Stephane Trần Ngọc today.

The concertmaster for the Danish Chamber Players, will play Carmen Fantasy, a violin fantasy written by Spanish violin virtuoso and composer Pablo de Sarasate.

Consisting of five movements, it is one of Sarasate’s most well-known works.

Ngọc will continue with Symphonie Espagnole in D minor (Spanish Symphony) written by French composer Édouard Lalo in 1874 when Spanish-themed music was particularly popular in his country.

The five-movement piece featuring Spanish motifs premiered in Paris in 1875, and is considered a violin concerto today.

Ngọc graduated in violin and chamber music at the Paris National Superior Conservatory of Music at 15. He later received a master’s degree from the Brooklyn College’s Conservatory of Music and a doctorate in musical arts from The Juilliard School in the US.

He has won top prizes at several international competitions such as the Lipizer Competition and the Long-Thibaud International Competition where in 1990 he was awarded the Grand Prix and Special Audience Prize.

He has performed as a soloist in over 30 countries with orchestras, including the Radio-France Philharmonic, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic and the Shinsei Symphony Orchestra.

He is currently a professor at the Pôle Sup' 93 art school in Paris.

The concert will also feature Twelve Spanish Dances for String Orchestra written by Spanish composer Enrique Granados, and Malaguena, the six movement from the Andalucia Suite by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona.

Both compositions will be played by the HBSO Orchestra.

The concert will be conducted by Meritorious Artist Trần Vương Thạch. — Photo courtesy of HBSO

The concert will be conducted by Meritorious Artist Trần Vương Thạch, a former director of the HBSO.

Thạch has conducted for the HBSO in Germany, Italy, Scotland, Spain, France, Japan, and Korea.

In 2020 he was conferred the Knight of Arts and Letters (Chevaliers des Lettres et des Arts) title by the French Government for his efforts to promote arts exchanges between Việt Nam and France.

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