Music

Viet Nam News NEW YORK — Indie rockers The National and Bon Iver on Wednesday unveiled the latest entrant into the streaming universe – a site for musicians to post their outtakes hassle-free. Dubbed People, the platform is designed not as a rival to major streaming sites such as Spotify but rather as a free site of benefit to musicians and, ideally, to fans. People, available in test form at https://beta.p-e-o-p-l-e.com/, will let artists upload tracks that did not make the cut for albums, early versions of songs that did see the light of day, or pretty much anything else the musicians think the world may want to hear. Justin Vernon, the central member of Wisconsin-based experimental rockers Bon Iver, posted songs including Digi Heart, a cloud of electronic effects with echoes of his band’s more recent output. Vernon wrote on People that he recorded the song in 2011 with Ivan Howard, the singer of the North Carolina band The Rosebuds in which Vernon once played … [Read more...] about Indie rockers start streaming site for outtakes

Viet Nam News NEW YORK — Two of the most sought-after producers in pop music, Mark Ronson and Diplo, have walked different paths, with Ronson reviving retro funk and Diplo reaching eagerly across the globe. The two have fused their brands of dance music to create a new duo, Silk City, which made its debut Saturday to the sweaty masses at New York’s Governors Ball. In its eighth year, Governors Ball – which brings some 150,000 people over three days to tiny Randall’s Island, where the New York boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx come together – remains the longest-running of a proliferating number of summer music festivals in the metropolis. This year’s festival took on daily themes, with Friday rekindling the flame of early 2000s indie rock and Saturday drawing a significantly younger crowd with a heavy emphasis on hip-hop. Silk City – so named after a Philadelphia diner where a young Diplo built his name as a DJ – kicked off … [Read more...] about Top DJs fuse styles at New York’s Governors Ball

Antonin Dvorak in loveBradley Winterton Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) is one of the most popular composers, and some of his most popular works were written during a three-year stay in the United States of America. Born a Czech, Dvorak had already received huge acclaim in his native country, as well as internationally, when he accepted an invitation to go to the U.S in 1892 as the director of the New York National Conservatory. During his stay, he composed both his famous Cello Concerto and his beloved Symphony Number 9, “From the New World”. This symphony will be performed by the Ho Chi Minh Ballet and Symphony Orchestra (HBSO) on Sunday, April 29 in the Saigon Opera House, beginning at 8 p.m. Both works incorporate melodies Dvorak had absorbed while in the U.S, some derived from Native American sources, some from Afro-American ones. But Dvorak found the two sources almost identical, as he wrote in a newspaper article whilst in New York. And each of them, he said, ought to … [Read more...] about Antonin Dvorak in love

Audio-visual performance 4DOORS to take place in Hanoi tomorrow Familiar and elegant Heritage Space, where audio-visual performance 4DOORS will be presented on Friday - PHOTO: COURTESY OF HERITAGE SPACE Heritage Space and DomDom will tomorrow present “4DOORS”, the second concert of the experimental musical performance series “Beyond Sound 2018”. This time will be an audio-visual performance, a product of collaboration between Autonomicon - an international group represented by Denis Trusov, and new age artists from DomDom. The project tells about the gloomy borderline states of the human psyche, desperate situations, unbearable and existential loneliness inherent in every human being. The project’s toolkit includes real time sound engineering, music by Autonomicon and Hanoi musicians, and a specific postmodern game with texts in both English and Vietnamese that will be transformed during the show. They are the lost and found keys to the locked … [Read more...] about Audio-visual performance 4DOORS to take place in Hanoi tomorrow

French flutist and pianist to perform in Vietnam French flutist Nicolas Duchamp will perform in HCMC tomorrow to mark the 100th death anniversary of great composer Debussy - PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ORGANIZER Internationally acclaimed flutist Nicolas Duchamp and pianist Hélène Jeanney will perform at HCMC’s International Cultural Exchange with France (IDECAF) tomorrow to mark the 100th death anniversary of French composer Debussy. Duchamp will open the concert with Debussy’s Syrinx, a piece of music for solo flute composed in 1913, and Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) written from 1892 to 1894, which was inspired by a poem of the same title by French poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Jeanney will continue with a solo piano piece L’Isle joyeuse (The Joyful Island) composed by Debussy in 1904. The duo will complete the night with works by three French composers, including Francis … [Read more...] about French flutist and pianist to perform in Vietnam

Singing festival wraps up in Ha Giang An artist sings and plays a Tinh gourd lute at the festival - PHOTO: VNA The sixth national festival of the art of Then singing and Tinh gourd lute of the Tay, Nung and Thai ethnic groups concluded in the northernmost province of Ha Giang early this week, news website Vietnamplus reports. Speaking at the closing ceremony, Nguyen Thi Hai Nhung, head of the Department of Traditional Culture under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the festival has successfully showcased the solidarity and patriotism of Vietnamese ethnic groups. It was also a chance to introduce the cultural heritage of ethnic groups to international friends. She affirmed that during the event, Vietnam’s heritage, particularly Then singing and Tinh gourd lute, left strong impressions on visitors. The festival was attended by more than 500 artists from 14 provinces nationwide, with nearly 60 original performances. These performances deeply reflected … [Read more...] about Singing festival wraps up in Ha Giang

Stephane Tran Ngoc returns to SaigonBradley Winterton Last time I reviewed the Paris-born violinist Stephane Tran Ngoc in Saigon I went over the top.  “I don’t think I have ever been so excited and impressed,” I wrote in The Saigon Times on July 21, 2017. It was “a concert of a lifetime,” with the soloist having “all the virtues, plus more besides”.  He will appear again on Wednesday May 9 at the Saigon opera House, playing Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto, with the HBSO music director Tran Vuong Thach conducting. Last time he succeeded in making a modernistic piece, Peteris Vask’s Concerto for violin and string orchestra, Distant Light, sound like Mozart. But it was his encores that really devastated me. First he played an item from a Bach partita for solo violin that was simultaneously soulful and complex. Then came a celebrated Paganini caprice, written to show the technological extremes a … [Read more...] about Stephane Tran Ngoc returns to Saigon

Fundraising concert organized for My Lai Peace ParkThanh Hoa An artist’s impression of My Lai Peace Park - PHOTO: COURTESY OF MY LAI PEACE FOUNDATION My Lai Peace Foundation in coordination with HCMC Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will organize the “Desire for Peace” concert at the HCMC Opera Theater on April 30, 2018, with an aim to raise funds for My Lai Peace Park project in Quang Ngai Province. Starting from 7:30 p.m., the concert will feature some songs praising the love for the country such as Viet Nam Que Huong Toi (Vietnam, my country) by Do Nhuan, Tieng Goi Tu Long Dat (Sound from underground) by Pham Minh Tuan and Noi Vong Tay lon (The great circle of Vietnam) by Trinh Cong Son. My Lai Peace Park will cover 41 hectares near the Son My memorial site in Son Tinh District wherein 504 unarmed civilians were massacred in March 1968 in the midst of the Vietnam War. The project aims to commemorate the victims of the My Lai massacre and provide … [Read more...] about Fundraising concert organized for My Lai Peace Park

A night of Mozart and TchaikovskyBradley Winterton Korean pianist Cho Eun Young will perform at a concert featuring Mozart’s piano concertos in HCMC on April 19 - PHOTO: BRADLEY WINTERTON Mozart’s piano concertos represent a pinnacle. Quite what they are a pinnacle of is another matter, because nothing like them had ever been produced before. But a pinnacle they are nonetheless. The piano was at the time a relatively new instrument. Its ability to create notes soft or loud was described in its name, the ‘pianoforte’ – soft (‘piano’) or loud (‘forte’). This was an advance on the older harpsichord, where the strings were plucked with a kind of claw rather than hammered with a padded hammer, as in the new piano. Mozart essentially wrote his piano concertos to play himself, to exhibit his technical virtuosity in a public concert, as well as to express his softer feelings in, for example, the slow movements. The concertos were … [Read more...] about A night of Mozart and Tchaikovsky

German baritone to perform classical music in HCMCVu Yen German baritone Benjamin Appl will perform at “From Europe with love” concert in HCMC this Saturday - PHOTO: VU YEN World-renowned German baritone Benjamin Appl and Vietnamese female pianist Bich Tra will perform at the “From Europe with love” concert in HCMC this weekend. This is the very first project of the Soul Live Project Series - Classical Music initiated by Amberstone Media, marking the first step of a long journey to shorten the distance between the audience and the arts. The concert will take place at the Soul Live Project Complex, 216 Pasteur, District 3 from 7 p.m. on April 21, 2018. It will feature some of the greatest works by Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn, Benjamin Britten, and Francis Poulenc, and also some lesser known gems, even to Europeans, will be introduced in Vietnam for the first time. With the “poetry in songs from the cities of … [Read more...] about German baritone to perform classical music in HCMC