Phương Mai

HCM CITY — Hundreds of international and Vietnamese musicians, vocalists and dancers will present a ten-day extravaganza of chamber music, opera and dance during the Autumn Melodies Arts Festival 2025, which will kick off in HCM City on August 15.

The festival is organised by the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera and its partner, the Goethe-Institut in HCM City.

The opening concert, titled Bay Lên Việt Nam (Soaring Vietnam), will highlight Vietnamese songs praising the country and President Hồ Chí Minh arranged for symphony orchestra, such as Hồ Chí Minh Đẹp Nhất Tên Người (Hồ Chí Minh – The Most Beautiful Name) composed by Trần Kiết Tường, Tổ Quốc Tôi Chưa Bao Giờ Đẹp Thế (My Beautiful Homeland) by Nguyễn Văn Thương, and Rạng Rỡ Việt Nam (Glorious Việt Nam) by Nguyễn Quang Vinh.

The concert will also feature orchestral compositions by Vietnamese composers, including Overture Mùa Xuân Thế Kỷ (Spring of the Century) by Hoàng Cương and Rhapsody Việt Nam by Đỗ Hồng Quân.

The performance will feature soloists Phạm Trang, Meritorious Artist Phạm Khánh Ngọc and People’s Artist Tạ Minh Tâm, together with the HBSO Choir and Symphony Orchestra.

Conductors Lê Ha My and Trần Nhật Minh will conduct the concert.

HBSO’s director Lê Ha My said, “The Autumn Melodies Arts Festival 2025 aims to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution (August 19, 1945 – 2025) and National Day (September 2, 1945 – 2025). We want to honour Vietnamese composers who have made significant contributions to the country’s music scene and compositions that evoke a sense of homeland.”

He said, “The event also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Autumn Melodies Arts Festival. HBSO will introduce important works from the classical music scene to prove that our artists have made great efforts over the last 30 years to stage challenging works that require difficult techniques.”

The festival will introduce The Art of Chamber Music on August 16, featuring Octet-Partita in E-Flat Major for Woodwinds by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Solo de concours by André Messager, Konzertstück No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn, Concertino for Two Pianos in A Minor by Dmitri Shostakovich, Piano Quartet by Gustav Mahler, Dolly Suite for piano 4-hands by Gabriel Fauré, and Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The concert will feature soloists from HBSO and guest artists from the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet.   

The premiere of Symphony No. 1 “Titan” by Mahler in HCM City on August 17 is expected to be a remarkable night.

The symphony was composed between late 1887 and March 1888, and premiered in Budapest, Hungary, in 1889. It consists of four movements, expressing the composer’s deep emotions and thoughts on life and the world.

The concert will be staged and led by conductor My.  

German conductor

Kristin Behnke, Professor of Choral and Ensemble Conducting at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar, Germany, will join HBSO in the festival.

Behnke said, “It’s a very great pleasure and honour for me to be here for the Autumn Melodies Arts Festival. I read about it and I feel that the Autumn Melodies Arts Festival is a celebration that brings together artists, audience and traditions from many places and transforms the city into a kind of meeting point for music in all its variety.”

She will conduct the Vocal Arts and Acapella Choir programme on August 20, featuring arias from famous operas such as Pique Dame by Tchaikovsky, Candide by Bernstein, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) by Rossini, and songs such as La Spagnola by Vincenzo di Chiara, Musica Proibita by Gastaldon, and Villanelle by Eva Dell'Acqua.

The performance will present vocalists Phạm Trang and Phạm Duyên Huyên, and pianists Ju Sun Young and Nguyễn Phương Hạnh.

After the intermission will be compositions for choir and strings by Brahms and Vivaldi, particularly the world premiere of Red Priest for Choir, composed by German composer Oliver Korten, performed by HBSO Choir and Strings Orchestra.

Behnke said, “I asked composer Oliver Korten, who is my husband, to create this piece as a personal gift for the opera choir and the festival.”

Behnke will collaborate with Minh to stage a concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on August 24 as a farewell to the festival.

The Symphony No. 9 is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna in 1824.

The four-movement work is full of quintessential values that express people's desires and hopes for life with happiness and love.

Behnke will be the chorusmaster of the concert while Minh will wield the baton.

Behnke is the artistic director of the via-nova-chor Munich, with which she won one of the two first prizes in the mixed choir category at the German Choir Competition in 2018. She has worked as a guest conductor with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and the Cottbus State Philharmonic, among others.

Swan Lake

Classical ballet Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky will be the most anticipated performance of the Autumn Melodies Arts Festival 2025.

The ballet is staged and choreographed by Norwegian Johanne Jakhelln Constant, who earned a Master of Fine Arts in classical ballet and modern dance from the University of Iowa, the US. She created completely new versions of the ballets Coppélia, Cinderella and The Nutcracker exclusively for HBSO.

The classical ballet is based on Russian and German folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse. It was first performed in Moscow in 1877 and became one of the most popular ballets of all time.

Choreographer Đoàn Phúc Hải, head of the HBSO Ballet, said, “Swan Lake is the most desired work of every ballet troupe and choreographer.”

He said, “For this festival, HBSO introduces some extracts from the ballet on August 23, while the full version is expected to premiere in October.”

The ballet will star Đỗ Hoàng Khang Ninh, who will play Odette.

Ninh said being in Swan Lake was a dream, but emphasised that it is “really hard. We’ve practised from morning to evening from Monday to Saturday. Portraying a swan is very difficult. I have to express gentleness through movements as well as the facial expressions of the Swan Queen.”

Ninh got a scholarship to study with the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, and participated in cultural exchanges in Korea. She has performed in the ballets Giselle, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, and Ballet Kiều.

The performance will also feature Lê Đức Anh, Sùng A Lùng, Phạm Thế Phương and dancers from the HBSO Ballet, the HCM City Dance School, and Sasa Ballet.

HBSO will host a workshop on the ballet from 6pm to 7pm on August 22, where Hải and dancers will share their challenges in bringing one of the world’s most popular ballets to HCM City.

All the shows will begin at 8pm at the HCM City Opera House at 7 Lam Sơn Square in Sài Gòn Ward. Registration for free tickets is available at facebook.com/HBSOVN. — VNS