Classic occasion: German conductor Christian Schumann (right) and pianist Hinrich Alpers will perform during the week-long festival at the HCM City Opera House. — VNS Photo Duc Ngoc

HCM CITY (VNS)— The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will entertain the city with a week-long festival of classic music and dance performances by Vietnamese and foreign artists beginning on August 16.

This year's Autumn Melodies festival will include seven performances by leading Vietnamese musicians as also young Overseas Vietnamese artists from Russia, Germany and Norway who will perform with hundreds of HBSO musicians and dancers.

The opening concert will feature Carl Stamitz and Antonio Vivaldi's compositions played by clarinet artist Nguyen Quoc Bao, bassoonist Nguyen Tri Dung, and pianists Tran Dieu Linh and Tran Dieu An.

The highlight of the night will be Tran Manh Hung's Vietnamese folk song suite Dong Chay (Flow) performed by the HBSO and a children's choir under the baton of Tran Nhat Minh.

Famous violinist Bui Cong Duy and the Ha Noi Ensemble consisting of artists from the Viet Nam Academy of Music will play violin, piano and clarinet compositions during the second show.

The next day, Touching the Past, the latest ballet by choreographers Nguyen Phuc Hai and Nguyen Phuc Hung, will be performed with the support of dancers Dam Duc Nhuan, Ho Phi Diep and the HBSO Ballet.

The August 19 concert will have seven young Russian talents from the Spivakov Foundation to perform works for piano, violin, accordion and domra (a long-necked Russian string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings), as well as a ballet performance.

Norwegian choreographer Johanne Jakhelln Constant, who worked with HBSO to stage The Nutcracker ballet in 2011 and 2012, will bring Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella ballet to the stage on August 20. Young dancer Doan Vu Minh Tu will play Cinderella.

A piano recital by Hinrich Alpers of Germany on August 21 will feature works by Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt.

German conductor Christian Schumann will lead the HBSO and pianist Alpers in the final concert on August 22. The performance will present Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No 1 and Beethoven's Symphony No 4.

The festival will feature two seminars on dance and music at the HCM City's Dance School and the Youth Cultural House on August 16 and 20 respectively. It will also provide two free master classes on piano, and on conducting at the Conservatory of Music on August 19, and 23 and 24.

All shows will open at 8pm from August 16 to 22 at the HCM City Opera House, 7 Lam Son Square, District 1.

Tickets costing VND400,000 (US$19) to VND650,000 ($31) each night can be bought at the Opera House. Students can buy tickets for VND150,000 ($7) each. — VNS