HCM CITY — The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will host the Rock Symphony at the HCM City Opera House tonight.        

The annual concert celebrates the Opera House’s 119th anniversary and ushers in the  Lunar New Year.

It will feature rock music by dozens of singers and musicians who will perform popular foreign pieces.

The show will open with Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are the Champions by Queen, a British rock band that formed in London in 1970.   

Both songs will be performed by HBSO singers with the support of the orchestra and choir under conductor Lê Phi Phi.

Phi graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. After graduation, he became the conductor of the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1993 to 2000.

He has performed with the Macedonian National Symphony Orchestra, Macedonian Ballet Theatre, the Symphony Orchestra of the city of Nis in Serbia, the Việt Nam National Opera Ballet and HBSO.

He has toured in Macedonia, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Albania and Bulgaria.

Since 1995, Phi has worked with the two Vietnamese orchestras to organise concerts. He has also helped connect overseas Vietnamese artists with local organisers.

Phi works as a music teacher at the Macedonian Centre of Opera and Ballet.

The concert will continue with disco songs from the 1980s, including Fantasy’s You’re Too Late, Deodato’s Keep on Movin’ and Curtis Hairston’s I Want You All Tonight.

Sting’s Englishman in New York, Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall and Bee Gees’ How Deep is Your Love will be also included.

Songs by famous bands The Beatles, ABBA and Boney M.will also be featured. Twist and Shout, Waterloo and Medley will be played by the orchestra and choir.

The concert will begin at 8pm tonight at the HCM City Opera House at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1.

Tickets are available at the box office. — VNS