HCM CITY — German pianist Hinrich Alpers and Vietnamese violinist Bùi Công Duy will present a free concert in HCM City on March 16.

They will perform masterpieces of classical music by Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms.

Alpers will open the night with Piano Sonata No 21 in C Major Op. 53, which Beethoven dedicated to his close friend and patron Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein of Vienna.

The pianist will continue the concert with Schumann’s Arabesque in C major Op. 18.

The highlight of the night will be a performance of Alpers and Duy of Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 18.

Alpers, who studied at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hanover, earned a graduate diploma from the Julliard School in New York.

He has won numerous awards at international competitions, including first prize at the 3rd International Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn 2009.

He has been a soloist with several orchestras and has taken part in chamber music performances in Europe, the US and Canada.

In 2010, Alpers founded the annual festival and master class series, the International Summer Academy Lüneburger Heide, in his hometown Uelzen.

Duy, 36, who began playing violin at the age of four under the instruction of his father, professor and violinist Bùi Công Thành, is a graduate of the Tchaikovsky National Music College in Moscow.

He has won top prizes at international competitions, including first prize and a gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in St Petersburg in 1997.

Duy, who has performed in many countries, including Việt Nam, Germany, Italy, and Norway, is a lecturer at the Việt Nam National Academy of Music.

The concert will begin at 7pm at the Cultural Salon – Saturday Coffee, 19B Phạm Ngọc Thạch Street, in District 3.

After the concert in HCM City, Alpers and Duy will tour Huế, Đà Nẵng and Hà Nội on March 17, 18 and 23, respectively. — VNS