HCM CITY — Pianist Nguyễn Thùy Yên of HCM City will play Piano Concerto in C for Piano and Orchestra  by American composer Leroy Anderson in a concert at the HCM City Opera House on March 9.

The concerto, written in 1953, premiered in 1954, but Anderson withdrew it following mixed reviews. In 1988, his family decided to publish the work.

Yên will perform along with the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO)’s orchestra.

Yên received a Bachelor of Music in piano performance and a Master’s degree at the city’s Conservatory of Music in 2000 and 2005.

She has performed as a soloist as well as a chamber music pianist with HBSO and Saigon Philharmonic Orchestra.

She has played at the Kimbrough Concert Hall at Washington State University in the US, and at the first and second International Piano Festival in 2011 and 2013 in HCM City.

Yên is currently the deputy head of the piano department at the conservatory.

The concert will also feature Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No 9 in E Minor, “From the New World”, op 95, B178.

The four-movement symphony was composed in 1983 when Dvorak was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1892 to 1895. It premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1893 and has been popular ever since.

Conductor Trần Vương Thạch, HBSO’s director, will lead the concert.

Thạch studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Liège in Belgium and the Conservatory of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

He has worked as conductor with the Việt Nam Symphony Orchestra, the Nis Symphony Orchestra in Serbia, and the New Prime Symphony Orchestra in Pusan, South Korea.

He led the HBSO in the Asian Orchestra Week in Tokyo in 2008 and in 2014.

He wrote the theme song Lá Bàng (Leaf of Malabar Almond Tree) for the 1998 TV series Viên Ngọc Côn Sơn (Pearl of Côn Sơn), about love between Vietnamese and soldiers during war.

He also composed music for two cải lương (reformed opera) plays Kim Vân Kiều (The Tale of Kiều) in 2006 and Chiếc Áo Thiên Nga (Swan Coat) in 2007.

Thạch gained the title Meritorious Artist in 2007.

The concert will begin at 8pm at 7 Lam Sơn Square in District 1. Tickets are available at the venue and at www.ticketbox.vn. — VNS