HÀ NỘI — Lê Thư Hương, one of Việt Nam’s most talented flautists, will perform a recital at a show at the French Cultural Centre on June 18.

The show, titled Fantasy Summer, will comprise nine pieces by French, Vietnamese and Argentinean composers.

Flautist Hương will perform almost the pieces with accompanists violinist Nguyễn Mỹ Hương, marimba and xylophone player Doãn Mai Hương and pianist Trần Thái Linh.

This will be the first time that so many French pieces are played at a Vietnamese show.

“I want to play music that night from the late Romantic period in France,” Hương said.

She will perform solo a piece by Pierre-Octave Ferroud to open the show.

“The piece titled Trois Piece (Three Pieces) was one of the composer’s most well-known pieces, which delivered ideas from the impressionism movement, with oriental and pastoral melodies from China,” Hương said.

It is not the flautist’s first recital. Hương has performed solo and with orchestras many times at local and international festivals in the US, France, and Germany.

She, however, considers challenging the piece by Georges Hue titled Fantaisie played on the flute and the piano.

“The composition is actually not so classical in its style of writing but much freer in its expression,” Hương said. “It is a lively piece and challenges the player’s technical expertise.”

The show will also introduce the piece Tây Nguyên by Vietnamese Đặng Hồng Anh. This is the second time the piece will be performed. Hương played this piece at the composer’s music night in Hà Nội in 2012.

“I like the piece very much. It symbolises the diversity of life in the Central Highlands, representing the various melodies and colours of the ethnic people,” Hương said.

“Audiences will be transported to the plateaus and the high mountains when they listen to the piece. I want to popularise it.”

Born into a music traditional family, Hương began to study the flute at the age of eight. She graduated from the Việt Nam National Academy of Music in 2001.

She continues to study music at the Danish Royal Music Academy since the last four years. Hương has also taken part in intensive training courses with famed flautist William Bennett in London in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

In 2007, as part of the Fantasia Wind Quintet, she attended a special concert training course at the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden that gave her an opportunity to learn and exchange experiences with other orchestras.

She has also been a member of the Asia Pacific Orchestra. She currently works at the Việt Nam National Academy of Music.

Hương is also doing her doctorate programme at the University of North Texas College of Music.

The show will begin at 8pm on June 18 on 24 Trang Tiền Street. — VNS