Togetherness: Conductor Le Phi Phi and singer Nguyen Thao perform at the Remain Forever concert last year. — File PhotoA concert will be held at Ha Noi Opera House to celebrate the National Day on September 2 – the 66th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's formal reading of the Declaration of Independence. 

Dieu Con Mai (Remain Forever) will start at 2pm at the moment Viet Nam became an independent nation 66 years ago.

Remain Forever is produced by online newspaper VietNamNet, with the aim of bringing classical music by veteran Vietnamese composers to a wider audience.

"Annually, there are two large classical concerts in Viet Nam – the Toyota and Hennessy concerts. We want to have high-profile Vietnamese concert," said composer Duong Thu, the concert's art director.

A founder of the event, Nguyen Anh Tuan said the online publication wished to emulate the celebrated foreign concerts such as the one held in the morning of January 1 in Vienna, the Chopin concert held in the afternoon in Warsaw and the open-air concert in Boston.

"We do not have any concert like that. I think we should have such a performance on the first day of the lunar year and the country's unification day on April 30, but National Day on September 2 would be the best date. On that day, Viet Nam escaped from nearly a century of French colonialism," he said.

The inaugural concert in 2009 introduced audiences to classical works by Vietnamese composers. The concert returns this year with the participation of conductor Le Phi Phi, violinist Bui Cong Duy, singers Hong Nhung, My Linh and two Vietnamese choirs.

After Phi graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia in 1993 he was invited to conduct the Macedonian National Orchestra, which he still leads.

He has performed in many countries and conducted the Viet Nam National Orchestra and Symphony in Ha Noi many times.

"I have performed in Viet Nam many times but only works by world composers. I feel honoured to be able to perform pieces which will give me a new emotion," he said.

Works by established Vietnamese composers will be performed such as To Quoc Viet Nam Anh Hung (Heroic Viet Nam Homeland) by Hoang Van; Tro Ve Dat Me (Return Motherland) by Nguyen Van Thuong; Le Chi Vien (Le Chi Garden) by Tran Manh Hung; and Concerto Grosso for violin, piano, percussion and string instrument by Nguyen Manh Duy Linh.

Hung and Linh are the best Vietnamese composers. Thu said. "Their works are a combination of folklore and contemporary material."

Hung's Le Chi Garden was a made-to-order composition for Deutsche Well television channel's The Orchestra Campus project. The symphony is a combination of Vietnamese traditional folk and Western classical melodies.

In 2010, Viet Nam Musicians Association presented it with a best symphony award.

The songs will reflect the revolutionary and national re-construction periods and have been composed and written by Duong Thieu Tuoc, Phan Huynh Dieu, Hong Dang and Duong Thu.

The invitation-only concert, will be broadcast live on Viet Nam Television's Channel 3.

Source:  VNS