HCM City (VNS/VNA) - ClaudeBrendel, director of the Conservatory of Rouen in France, will lead the Ho ChiMinh City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) in a concert at the OperaHouse on August 29.

The concert’s highlight will be Conciertode Aranjuez, a guitar concerto written by Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo in1939. The composition, first performed in Barcelona, Spain in 1940, isRodrigo’s best-known work.

It has been performed by many greatmusicians like American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, British rock band DeepPurple, and Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia.

The performance will featureVietnamese-French guitarist Nguyen Thanh Hang, a graduate of the NationalSuperior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance.

Hang received three excellence prizes fromthe Fédération Nationale des Unions de Conservatoires de Musique (NationalFederation of Music Conservatory Unions) when she was 13, and has won topprizes at several national and international competitions.

She has performed at prestigious venueslike the French Senate, the Dome Church of the Invalides, and the NationalInstitute for Young Blind People in Paris, and has given concerts in manycountries like Mexico, Argentina and Vietnam.

Hang has been a teacher at the AntonyConservatory of Music since 2000.

The concert will also perform Messesolennelle en l’honneur de Sainte-Cécile in G Major, known as St. Cecilia Mass,written in 1855 by French composer Charles Gounod.

The performance will feature soprano LyHoang Kim, tenor Tran Thanh Nam and bass Dao Mac.

The night’s programme also includesDebussy’s well-known Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to theAfternoon of a Faun).

Conductor Brendel was the first guestconductor of the Lyric Festival of Luchon, France in 1991, and then became theevent’s music director from 1994-1996.

From 1996 to 2001, he directed theUniversity Orchestra of Strasbourg.

Brendel is permanent conductor of thesymphony orchestra of the Conservatory of Rouen, which has been recognised bythe French Ministry of Culture and Communication as a cultural institution witha regional outreach.

He has performed in Europe, China, Braziland Vietnam. In 2016, Brendel recorded works for choir and orchestra byVietnamese composers.-VNS/VNA