HÀ NỘI — Some 150 Japanese and Vietnamese artistes will perform at a concert tonight (June 6) at the Hà Nội Opera House, featuring Beethoven masterpieces and contemporary dance.

Summer Symphony will open with the music of The Creatures of Prometheus ballet and Symphony No. 9 in the first part. Japanese conductor Kotaro Kimura will lead the musicians, including pianist Mika Kawasaki, double bass Ryohei Morita, three choirs - Xuan Voce Choir, Hanoi Freude Choir and Freude Fukuoka - and the Việt Nam National Opera and Ballet (VNOB).

According to Kimura, all the musicians are the same, irrespective of whether they are Japanese or Vietnamese. “We can become one through music, which is why we worked together. I want the audience to hear our music and realise what Beethoven must have sounded like back then,” he told hanoigravine.com.

This will be Kimura’s third performance with VNOB. He had performed in HCM City for the first time some 10 years ago. He has been conducting numerous orchestras and music events, including performances in earthquake-affected Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture in 2011, in addition to the 9.11 Memorial Concert in New York in 2013. He often works in Japan and as the guest principal conductor for the St Petersburg Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra in Russia as well as in Việt Nam. 

The Freude Fukuoka was founded in 1982 in Fukuoka, Japan. It is an amateur mixed choir, with members aged between 20 and 80. Most of their repertoires are beautiful and powerful Japanese chorus works and pop music. Under the guidance of music director Keisuke Nakajima and music adviser pianist Kumi Kamimoto, the choir won gold and silver prizes at the Chorus Competition in Kyushu, Japan, in 2014 and 2015. 

“This is the first time VNOB’s concert will feature a large number of singers from international and Vietnamese choirs,” said VNOB director Trần Ly Ly. “Symphony No. 9’s chapter four is the longest movement and combines symphony and choir. Conductor Kimura is skilful and has the experience to lead VNOB.”

The second part of the concert will feature a contemporary dance called Moment. It was choreographed by Nguyễn Ngọc Anh in 2016, inspired by moments of life, the struggle for survival and the desire for a better life. He soon took up professional choreography and won a third prize at the Việt Nam National Dance Competition in 2002 and the New British Choreography Bonnie Bird Award in 2005.

Anh also won the United Kingdom’s Spotlight Award in the Critics’ Circle Dance Awards (Outstanding Male Artist) in 2008. He was appointed a Resident Choreographer of the Union Dance Company for his debut Two By Two in 2007 and has choreographed for the Doreen Bird College from 2006 to 2010.

He won the Outstanding Achievement in Choreography by Hong Kong Dance Award in 2015 and worked as a dance assistant in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Moment will highlight established dancers such as Phan Văn Lương and Thu Huệ as well as other dancers of VNOB. — VNS