HA NOI (VNS)— Leading guitarists from the Sai Gon Guitar Club will perform a variety of international and Vietnamese music at the French Cultural Centre (L'espace) tonight.

Established in 2007 by guitarists Nguyen Thanh Huy and Tran Hoai Phuong, the club has performed several times in Hanoi. Today, Huy is head of the Guitar & Accordion Department at the HCM Conservatory while Phuong works at a bank.

Tonight audiences will hear Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, a composition by Ennio Morricone, and selections from Tchaik-ovsky's Nutcracker, among other musical arrangements.

The Nutcracker performers include Le Hoang Minh, from the Australian quartet Guitar Trek, who has won first prize in numerous guitar competitions including the Adelaide Spring Guitar Competition and the 50th Tokyo International Guitar Competition.

"Minh established his solo credentials with a dynamic Ginastera Sonata. In an inspired piece of programming, the Ginastera was followed by the charming and under-rated Collectici Intim by Vicente Asencio, the rare juxtaposition of these contrasting middleweights yielding a kaleidoscopic finale," Classical Guitar magazine wrote, describing a recent performance.

Minh has returned to Viet Nam every year to give lectures at the HCM Conservatory.

He will perform two solo pieces by Bach and Enrique Granados at the show on his old 8-string guitar.

After Ha Noi, the Sai Gon Guitar Club will perform in the central city of Da Nang on December 27 and 28 and in the central province of Quang Nam in December 29.

Club members will also talk about the classical guitar's surprising compatibility with Vietnamese music. — VNS