Renowned French conductor Zahia Ziouani will lead a “A Night of Debussy & Ravel” concert at the Saigon Opera House in HCM City on April 19. — Photo courtesy of French Institute

HCM CITY — Renowned French conductor Zahia Ziouani will lead a concert honouring composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel at the Saigon Opera House in HCM City on April 19.

“A Night of Debussy & Ravel” is being organised by the French Institute in Việt Nam and the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

It offers a journey through the masterpieces of French music and opens a space for dialogue to share and spread the values ​​of symphonic music to the Vietnamese public.

The highlight of the concert will be La Mer (The Sea), a masterpiece of musical Impressionism composed by Debussy between 1903 and 1905.

The three-movement piano orchestra that premiered in 1905 will be performed by Lưu Hồng Quang, one of the most remarkable young Vietnamese pianists on the international scene.

He will also perform the Piano Concerto in G major, composed by Ravel between 1929 and 1931.

The three-movement concerto is imbued with a neoclassical spirit blending jazz rhythms and blues sounds, and was first performed in 1932.

Vietnamese pianist Lưu Hồng Quang will perform Debussy and Ravel’s compositions at the concerts. — Photo courtesy of French Institute

Quang studied at the Việt Nam Academy of Music from 1997 to 2007, and at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Australia until 2012.

He obtained a master's degree from the University of Montreal, Canada, under the direction of renowned pianist Đặng Thái Sơn, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in musical arts in New Zealand.

He has won top prizes at several international piano competitions, such as the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition in Australia, the Euregio Piano Awards in Germany, and the Oleggio International Piano Competition in Italy.

The concert will also feature Le Boléro, a 1928 work for large orchestras, one of Ravel's most famous compositions, and Ải Chi Lăng (Chi Lăng Pass), an orchestral composition by celebrated composer Trần Mạnh Hùng, marking the work's premiere in Việt Nam.

The above two compositions will be performed by the HBSO Symphony Orchestra.

Ziouani is considered one of the leading figures on the contemporary symphony scene in France.

She founded and became musical director of the Divertimento Symphony Orchestra in 1998. She was music director of the Algerian National Orchestra from 2006 to 2013, and has conducted leading ensembles in several countries, such as Australia, Russia, Spain, and Poland.

In 2024, she conducted the Divertimento ensemble at the Stade de France during the Olympic Games closing ceremony.

The concert will begin at 8pm. The Saigon Opera House is at 7 Lam Sơn Square in Sài Gòn Ward, HCM City. — VNS