HCM CITY – Paris-born French-American violinist Stéphane Trần Ngọc will perform for the first time in Việt Nam the Violin Concerto in D major by Erich Wolfgang Korngold at “A Night Of American Music” concert hosted by the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) at the Opera House today at 8pm.

The concerto, created in 1945, is dedicated to Alma Mahler, the widow of Korngold’s childhood mentor Gustav Mahler, an Austrian music genius.

Stéphane has played at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Salle Gaveau, Salle Pleyel, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, as well as  Suntory Hall in Tokyo and National Concert Hall in Beijing.

He has performed as a soloist with some of Europe’s finest orchestras including Radio France Philharmonic, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Paris Ensemble Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Ile de France, and with the Shinsei Symphony Orchestra in Japan.

Among his recordings are the world premiere of the Serge Nigg Violin and Piano Sonata (1996 Grand Prix du Disque), Ysaye sonatas, a CD dedicated to Ravel, the Brahms Horn Trio, and Schumann sonatas with American pianist Brian Ganz.

He has also been highly recognised as a pedagogue, holding a position as one of the youngest violin teachers at the highest level in France at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon for several years before teaching at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in the US and being appointed as head of strings at the London College of Music.

In addition to his solo performing, he has been an active chamber music performer as a violinist with the DaPonte String Quartet from 2003 to 2005, and a member of the Lawrence Chamber Players for many years, performing with such partners as Herve Billaut, Pierre-Henri Xuereb, Xavier Gagnepain, Henri Demarquette, Michel Mikalakakos and Brian Ganz.

He has been solo violin for the Danish Chamber Players since September 2010.

The concert will also feature the Symphony No.2 “Romantic” in D-flat Major, op.30, W45 written by Howard Hanson in 1930 to mark the 50^th anniversary of Boston Symphony Orchestra. Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music.

The concert will open with An American Overture, an orchestral work by English composer, pianist and conductor Benjamin Britten. The work’s original title was An Occasional Overture; it was left in America when Britten returned to England in 1942. When it was unearthed in the 1970s, Britten claimed at first to have no memory of it.

The concert will be conducted by young talent Trần Nhật Minh.

Tickets, priced at VNĐ550,000, VNĐ400,000, VNĐ350,000, VNĐ200,000, and VNĐ80,000, are available at the venue. – VNS