HCM CITY — The first programme of a special art project to introduce classical music to young people will begin this week in HCM City. 

Gioi Thieu Nhac Co Dien (Classical Music) is organised by Saigon Classical, a club of 30 young artists that aims to promote the musical genre to young people. The club was established in 2005 in HCM City.

The project includes a series of performances, talk shows and forums featuring classical music, a genre rooted in the traditions of Western culture, instruments and famous music pieces of different styles created and performed by talented artists in different generations.

Its first programme will include a talk show by composer Tran Nhu Vinh Lac of Saigon Classical.  

He will talk about the instruments used in classical music in the 18th,19th and 20th centuries in orchestra such as the piano and organ.

The woodwind and percussion families of instruments will also be highlighted.

The programme will also include a show performed by Lac and his staff of young music players. The artists will play foreign and Vietnamese music pieces. 

“We have support art projects launched by young artists, including Gioi Thieu Nhac Co Dien, because they have improved knowledge and love for music among young audiences today,” said Tran Tuan Khoa, a first-year student at HCM City University of Law.

Khoa and his friends attended Dien Xuong Nam Bo (Folk Singing Genres of the Southern Region), a long-term art project that aims to expand Vietnamese traditional music and theatre by the Soul Music and Performing Arts Academy’s Soul Live Project last year.  

The project includes a series of different activities and shows featuring the history of dien xuong, including folk songs called ho, ve, ly, noi tho and noi tuong, and dances and plays of different styles created and performed by southern farmers in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

It has attracted dozens of talented artists, music and theatre critics, such as cultural researcher Huynh Ngoc Trang of the HCM City Institute of Culture and Arts Research.

Trang has more than 20 years of experience in the art and has written more than 70 books and other documents on traditional culture, fine arts and religion of the South.

The first programme of Gioi Thieu Nhac Co Dien will begin at 7pm on February 23 at the HCM City Literature & Arts Association at 81 Tran Quoc Thao Street in District 3. Entrance is free.—VNS