HÀ NỘI — As the sun sets on pain and silence, pianist Hoàng Hồ Thu and violinist Hoàng Hồ Khánh Vân will light up the stage at Nắng Hoàng Hôn – Những Lá Thư Chưa Gửi (Sunset Sun 2025 – Unsent Letters), a charity concert opening on September 6 in Hà Nội.

A follow-up to last year’s Sunset Sun programme, this year’s concert continues its mission of supporting underprivileged patients while offering emotional healing through music. The organisers hope that the concert’s classical melodies will inspire compassion, promote meaningful values, and encourage heartfelt donations from the public.

This year’s theme, Unsent Letters, draws inspiration from Letter to His Father by Franz Kafka and touches on the silent emotional wounds often formed in childhood. These unspoken struggles — shaped by a lack of understanding, lost dreams, and fragile connections with parents or relatives — often linger into adulthood, unheard and unresolved.

Through this deeply reflective programme, the concert seeks to give voice to those silent journeys and offer a space for healing, both emotional and physical, through the power of music.

Images of local and foreign artists to join performing at Sunset Sun charity concert kicks off next Saturday (September 6). Photos board of concert organisers.

The first similar programme last year was inspired by the book Memoir of a Dialysis Patient (locally known as Hồi Ký Chạy Thận) and driven by the heartfelt messages that author and 17-year haemodialysis patient Hồ Hồng Việt, 71, wished to share. The Sunset Sun charity concert emerged as a collaborative effort between the author’s family, a group of artists and the NEU (National Economics University) Philharmonic and Humans of ISME@NEU.

Last year’s concert told a captivating story — one expressed not through words alone, but through the language of music. As the notes resonated, listeners embarked on a journey alongside dialysis patients who defy their fate. Through evocative melodies and harmonies, the concert became a vessel for conveying the book’s powerful message directly to the hearts of its audience, said Nguyễn Thị Hiền from Hà Nội’s Hai Bà Trưng Ward.

All the money from book sales was donated to haemodialysis patients facing the most disadvantaged circumstances, said the organisers.

“Having received mass responsibility and support from the large audiences who attended last year’s Sunset Sun concert, and recognising the programme’s significance and its noble mission, the programme founders have decided to develop the Sunset Sun charity concert annually.

"Although each year will focus on a different topic, all will continue to explore the depth of classical music’s spirituality towards lofty humanistic values, helping human beings to incline towards the good and live better lives,” the organisers said.

Pianist Hoàng Hồ Thu and violinist Hoàng Hồ Khánh Vân were performing at last year's Sunset Sun charity concert that received hundreds of classic music lovers and young audiences.

Apart from Thu and Vân, who are now lecturers at the Vietnam National Academy of Music (VNAM), they both completed a Master of Music course at the Liszt Academy in Hungary. They have performed as soloists with the Việt Nam Symphony Orchestra (VNSO) at VNAM’s Music Hall and participated in many concerts both inside and outside the country.

The concert will also feature cellist Lưu Ly Ly from the Việt Nam National Symphony Orchestra (VNSO). Ly graduated from Saint Petersburg; Belarus violist Svetlana Golubovskaya, principal violist of the Sun Symphony Orchestra; Russian violinist Victoria Filippova from the Sun Symphony Orchestra, who graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory; and contrabassist Ngô Toàn Thắng from the Sun Symphony Orchestra.

You are invited to join the concert via https://forms.gle/8X2MWdUGnAEBJTjy9. Donations can be made through ticket purchases ranging from VNĐ 100,000 (for students) to VNĐ 200,000, VNĐ 350,000, and VNĐ 500,000 per seat.

For further information, please contact: Nắng Hoàng Hôn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nanghoanghonconcert; Email: nanghoanghonconcert@gmail.com; Hotline: 093 519 6666; TikTok: nanghoanghonconcert.

The concert will start at 7pm on September 6 (Saturday) in A2 Hall, National Economics University (NEU), 207 Giải Phòng Road, Hà Nội. VNS