Show to honour famous musician Phan Huỳnh Điểu

ĐÀ NẴNG – A series of musical performances and cultural and arts programmes will be organised in honour the most renowned musician Phan Huỳnh Điểu on his 100th birthday anniversary in the central city on November 8-11.

Head of the event’s organising committee, musician Nguyễn Đức Trịnh said a musical performance titled: Cùng Tình Yêu Ở Lại (Only Love Stay with us) and a lyric in his roman song Thơ Tình Cuối Mùa Thu (Late Autumn Love Poems), will be staged at Đà Nẵng City’s Tiên Sơn Sports Centre on November 9.

Trịnh said the performance will be the main attraction of a three-day programme honouring the local musician, which has been in the planning stages for nearly five years.

“It’s an initiative of the Việt Nam Musician Association in honour of one of our most famous musicians and composers for their contribution to the country’s music and arts scene on their 100th anniversary,” Trịnh said.

“The night music show of Phan Huỳnh Điểu will be organised in Đà Nẵng City – where he was born and grew up before spending his last days.” 

Điểu was one of the best loved Vietnamese musicians, who created more than a hundred melodies featuring his love of life and the country, he added.

He composed his first ever song aged just 16, without any formal musical training.

The event’s general director, Lê Thụy, said the music performance in honour Điểu will be playing a wide selection of his works in a concert, which, fittingly, will last for one hundred minutes.

“We have included his old collections some of which have never been heard before. We spent a long time searching through his archives to bring them to the audience. It will be a very special time for roman music lovers, who will be hearing those pieces for the first time," Thụy said.

Phan Hồng Hà, Điểu’s son, said the show, which starts at 7.30pm, will be a chance for family members and the local audience to remember the late musician. He devoted his life to music and his native homeland, working throughout on his composition, even during the fierce time of wars.

A 128-page book about his best songs will be introduced in the occasion of his 100th birthday, Hà said.

Top vocalists Tạ Minh Tâm, Ánh Tuyết, Vũ Thắng Lợi and Ngọc Sơn have been invited to perform Điểu’s works at the concert.

The performers will depict the lifetime of the late musician from childhood in the former Quảng Nam-Đà Nẵng, wartime in the Trường Sơn mountain range and then when he returned to his home in the city.

Earlier, a painting and sculpture exhibition with a talk on Điểu’s life and music will be organised at Tiên Sơn Sports Centre on November 8.

Điểu, who was born in 1924, composed his first song Trầu Cau (Betel and areca) when he was just 16 and over a long career, penned more than one hundred songs.

He was awarded the Hồ Chí Minh Prize for Literature and Arts for his contributions to the nation's music in 2000.

Điểu passed away in 2015 in the age of 90 – one year before a show was organised in celebration of his birthday in Đà Nẵng.