HCM CITY – American maestro Hector Guzman and Vietnamese-American violinist Vũ Việt Chương will perform at a concert featuring operatic works and songs from movie soundtracks at the HCM City Opera House on Sunday (Oct 29).

The “From Sergei Rachmaninov to John Williams” concert will open with the overture of the operetta Candide with music by the late American conductor Leonard Bernstein. The operetta is an adaptation of the 1759 novel of the same name by French author Voltaire.

Songs from movie soundtracks include work from American composer John Williams: Theme, Jewish Town and Remembrances from Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List; The Chairman’s Waltz from Rob Marshall’s film Memoirs of a Geisha; and Tango from Martin Brest’s film Scent of a Woman.

Williams won five Oscars, four Golden Globes, seven British Academy Film Awards and 22 Grammy Awards for his compositions. He was the first film score composer to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 2016.

His best-known compositions are for the films Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones.

Violist Chương will perform in the first part of the concert with musicians from the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

Chương earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance from the University of Houston, and a doctorate from the University of North Texas.

He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in the US and Việt Nam, including the San Angelo Symphony, Odysseus Chamber Orchestra, the Richardson Symphony Orchestra, Hà Nội Symphony Orchestra and HBSO. He has also performed at international music festivals in the US, UK and Brazil.

The concert’s second part will feature Symphony No 2 in E Minor, op 27 by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov, one of the most popular composers of the late Romantic period.

The work appeared in the trailer of the 2015 Oscar best movie winner, Birdman, by Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Maestro Guzman, who is now music director of the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra in Texas, has served as director of the San Angelo Symphony, Plano Symphony and Irving Symphony.

He has been a guest conductor for prestigious ensembles in the US, Mexico, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, Japan and South Korea.

Guzman is also a successful organist, performing at venues such as the Meyerson Symphony Hall in the US, Morelia Cathedral in Mexico and Chartres Cathedral in France, and at international music festivals in Spain and Mexico.

In 2008, he was granted the Mozart Medal, one of the highest musical honours, by the Embassy of Austria and Mozart Academy in Mexico City.

He also received the 2014 Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity’s National Arts Associate award.

The concert will begin at 8 pm at the Opera House at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue’s box office. — VNS