Hanoi orchestra celebrates German trio
The Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra will give a concert under the baton of German conductor Bernhard Epstein at the Hanoi Opera House on March 20.
The all-German programme will feature composers Richard Wagner, Carl Reinecke and Robert Schumann.
It will open with Wagner’s overture to his opera The Flying Dutchman. The 200th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated around the world this year.
Vietnamese flautist Le Thu Huong will then join the orchestra for Reinecke’s Flute Concerto.
The concert will end with Schumann’s Fourth Symphony.
Responding to an invitation from the German Academic Exchange Service and the Goethe Institute in Vietnam, Epstein, comes to work with the Vietnam National Academy of Music (VNAM) this month.
Epstein, a professor at the Music Academy of Stuttgart, studied in Stuttgart, Hanover and Berlin. Both a pianist and conductor, he has been awarded many prizes and scholarships.
He has worked at the state opera companies in Hanover and Stuttgart and is the artistic director of the Opera School.
Besides an extensive operatic repertoire, Epstein has also conducted contemporary musical theatre productions and premieres.
Huong teaches flute at the VNAM and is a member of the Hanoi Philharmonic. She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen for four years.
She has also taken part in world-famous flautist William Bennett's masterclasses in London in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and in local and international music festivals.
The Hanoi Philharmonic is one of Vietnam's leading orchestras. It comprises professors, lecturers and top students from the VNAM. Many of the musicians are graduates of overseas conservatories.
The orchestra performs annually with foreign guest conductors. Every year, it plays several concerts not only in the capital but also in other provinces and cities such as Quang Ninh, Haiphong, Hue and HCM City. Its last trip abroad was to Japan last year.
The concert will start at the Ha Noi Opera House at 8pm on March 20. Tickets, priced between VND150,000-500,000 are available from the Goethe Institute, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street; the VNAM, 77 Hao Nam Street; and the Opera House, 1 Trang Tien Street.