Book captures Uncle Ho’s time abroad

A book on the life of Ho Chi Minh abroad between 1911 and 1941 has been released to mark his 121st birthday (May 19).

“Nghien Cuu, Xac Minh Tu Lieu Va Dia Chi Chu Tich Ho Chi Minh Da Song Va Hoat Dong O Nuoc Ngoai Tu Nam 1991 Den Nam 1941” (Research into and documents on addresses of President Ho Chi Minh abroad from 1991 to 1941)” is a research about the period he lived in Thailand and Laos in 1928 and 1929 and Moscow and China (1938).

Violinist Bui Cong Duy to perform with world-famous conductor

Vietnamese violinist Bui Cong Duy will perform with world-famous conductor Lior Shambadal in a “Bitexco Concert” at the Hanoi Opera House on May 24.

The concert will start with Trong Bang’s famous composition about Uncle Ho, to be followed by F. Mendelssohn’s Violin concerto in E-minor and J. Brahms’s Symphony No 4 in E-minor.

This is the second time Lior Shambadal will be in Vietnam. Early this year, he came to Ho Chi Minh City for a concert organised by the HCM City Ballet and Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Israel, Lior Shambadal has become a Chief Conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (Berliner Symphoniker) since 1997.

Maestro Shambadal has led more than 150 concerts at the famed Berlin Philharmonie as well as many open-air concerts at the Gendarmenmarkt and the Kulturbrauerei.

He has also conducted the orchestra in hundreds of performances during his trips to Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, Italy, Spain, Ireland, England, France, and Germany. In 2009, he was named Music Director of the Orchestre Filarmonica de Bogota (OFB), Colombia, with whom he visited China and Italy in 2009 and 2010.

Vietnam photographer wins international honor

Le Hong Linh has been conferred the prestigious title of Master Photographer by the France-based International Federation of Photographic Art for his black-and-white portraits of children in the Vietnamese countryside.

Linh is the second Vietnamese photographer to win the honor after Hoang Quoc Tuan in 2009.

The federation has conferred the title on more than 100 photographers since 1980.

Linh said in his “Emotional childhood in Vietnam’s countryside” collection, he sought to capture the life of children in the countryside and store memories of childhood since they would be forgotten some day.

Linh has won more than 400 international awards and held 21 exhibitions around the world.

He recently won the second prize in the small black-and-white category in the Photographic Society of America’s annual “Who’s who in photography” contest.

French pianist to perform Lizst

Award-winning French pianist Nicolas Stavy will perform at a concert in Ho Chi Minh City Wednesday.

At the “Liszt – Literary Inspiration” concert to be held by the HCMC French Cultural and Cooperation Antenna, he will perform works by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt including “Consolations, S. 172,” “God’s blessing in Solitude,” “Petrarch’s Sonnet 104,” “After a reading by Dante,” and “From the Cradle to the Grave.”

Stavy studied at the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris and received advanced training at the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland.

He won the special prize at the Chopin 2000 International Piano Competition in Poland, second prize at the 2001 Geneva International Music Competition, and second prize again at the 2003 Young Concert Artists Competition in New York.

He has performed in France, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Geneva, and New York, and performed in Hanoi last March.

Tickets cost from VND100,000 – 200,000 for general public and VND50,000 for students.

The concert will take place at the HCMC Opera House, District 1.

City orchestra performs Mozart, Vivaldi compositions

The International Choir & Orchestra of Ho Chi Minh City will perform Mozart’s “Coronation Mass”, Vivaldi’s “Gloria” , and a selection of other notable pieces at the HCMC Music Conservatory on May 27-28.

All the proceeds from the concerts, which will commence at 7:30pm, will benefit needy children in Vietnam through two nominated charities, Loreto Vietnam Australia Program and Poussieres de Vie (Dust of Life).

Tickets priced from US$5-25, are available at the Conservatory box office, 112 Nguyen Du St, Dist.1 and at Mekong Merchant, 23 Thao Dien St, Dist.2.

New Cham relic discovers in central Vietnam

Local scientists are working on the archaeological site in Da Nang City’s Phong Le commune where they have just unearthed remains of Cham culture.

The Cham Museum is located in Da Nang City, however the first-ever relics of Cham culture in Da Nang were just unearthed last week, according to scientists at an archaeological site in Phong Le Commune.

According to lecturer Nguyen Chieu of Hanoi National University, the excavation group’s leader, the artifact is probably the remains of a Cham tower, covering an area of 60 square meters, including bricks and foundation, and a big mound that is believed to be hiding several Cham-styled towers underground.

Though the discovery so far excludes any sculpture artifact, it is an important evidence in explanation of the existence of a 10th century’s embossment featuring a Siva dance found in the site by French archaeologist Henry Parmentier in 1890.

The excavation works will be continued on the site’s area of 200 square meter until October under the cooperation between scientists from Hanoi and the Cham Museum, which is considered the biggest of its kind in Southeast of Asia.

The site was built in 1915 with support from the French Far-East Research Institute in Vietnam and has a collection of artifacts from various sites of the erstwhile Champa kingdom.

Australian Wine & Food Show backs to HCMC

The Australian Wine and Food Show will take place at the Caravelle Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City early next month.

The show will feature over 200 Australian wine labels, and bring together HCMC’s leading Australian wine and cooking importers.

The event will provide an opportunity for both commercial buyers and members of the public to sample a broad range of high-quality Australian produces.

On June 2, the Caravelle Hotel will hold an Australian Wine Challenge with the aim of unveiling the best Australian wines currently available in Vietnam.

The following day from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., a trade exhibition will be held. At 7 p.m., the hotel will serve up a six-course meal showcasing the best of Australian produce paired with award winning wines.

The Food and Wine Show will be held on June 4 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets cost VND300,000 per person and are available at Bacchus Corner (158 Pasteur Street, District 1), The Warehouse (178 Pasteur Street, District 1) and WINO (74/17 Hai Ba Trung Street, District 1).

UNESCO urges better awareness of heritage preservation

UNESCO has emphasised the necessity for raising public awareness of preserving cultural heritages.

At a recent conference on implementing the 1972 and 2003 UNESCO Convention in Hanoi, UNESCO Chief Representative Katherine Muller Marin proposed ministries, branches and the entire people collaborate and take part in cultural heritage conservation, saying that the work should not be limited in operations of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Plans and synchronous measures are also needed for conserving UNESCO-recognised cultural heritage values, she added.

The conference discussed the management issues of the world’s natural and cultural heritages and raising the capability of the staff in the field as well as measures to preserve intangible cultural heritages under the 2003 UNESCO Convention.

Duong Tuan Kiet records life moments

Artist Duong Tuan Kiet opened a solo painting exhibition at Tu Do Gallery in HCMC’s District 1 over the weekend.

The show displays 30 offerings made of lacquer, depicting familiar images to Vietnamese people such as music, ladies, flowers and landscapes.

Images in his paintings are often simple and the colors he uses are soft and influenced by the south of the country.

The innocence and charm of his pieces lets visitors inside the very sincere and romantic make-up of the artist who was born in the waterlands of the Mekong Delta’s Long An Province.

Kiet has given many group painting exhibitions at home and abroad including ‘Vietnamese Peace in Art’ in the U.S., ‘Vision from Vietnam’ in London, U.K. and ‘A New Age’ in Hanoi.

The exhibition at Ho Tung Mau Street runs until June 21.

Festival to celebrate International Children’s Day

Children from Vietnam and Southeast Asia will enjoy the ‘Befriend Southeast Asia’ festival to be held at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology on May 28 and 29.

The event is being held in collaboration with the embassies of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand as part of this year’s International Children Day celebrations.

Vietnamese and Southeast Asian children living in Hanoi will introduce their cultures through music and dance performances, folk games, and traditional toy workshops.

Visitors to the museum can participate in a variety of folk games showing the similarities and differences between Southeast Asian countries such as ‘Walking on Coconut Shells’ from Laos, Thailand and Indonesia, the ‘Pebble Board Game’ from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and ‘Jumping Over Hands and Feet’ from Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam, among others.

The festival also features workshops to teach children how to make folk toys using traditional methods and materials. They can learn to make grasshoppers, fish and flowers from leaves, bamboo puppets, and animals from rolled paper. A workshop on traditional paper fans by the craftsmen from Chang Son, Hanoi, is also planned during the festival

Children will learn more about the region through exciting activities and games involving the national flags, cultural heritage and currencies of Southeast Asian countries.

They will also have the opportunity to try on traditional costumes from Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

The activities will take place during the festival from 8.30 to 11.30am and from 14:30 to 18.30pm.

Vietnam joins cultural heritage exhibition in China

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOCST), Vietnam will participate in the exhibition for world intangible cultural heritage in China from May 27-June 3, reports VietnamPlus.

Vietnam Exhibition Centre for Culture & Arts (VECCA) will team up with the International Cooperation Department under the MOCST to organize the event. The exhibition is an excellent opportunity to honor Vietnam’s intangible cultural heritages.

Until now there are five Vietnamese heritages acknowledged by UNESCO as the Intangible Heritage of Humanity, including nha nhac (Hue city royal music), khong gian van hoa cong chieng Tay Nguyen (the cultural space of Gong), ca tru (ceremonial songs), quan ho (Love duets) and Hoi Giong (Saint Giong Festival).

Village gates are to be cherished

A painting exhibition titled “Villages in the City” by Vuong Van Thao on Thursday opened at L’Espace in Hanoi.

The exhibition is part of the celebrated 2008 works ‘Living Fossils’.

Village gate, made of composite, is the main piece of the exhibition. Vuong Van Thao said: “Village gate, an artwork, is the beauty and diversity of architecture which expresses boldly the village’s culture as well as a lively picture demonstrating the origin of the city. We need to preserve and respect village gates in the city.”

Born in 1969 in Hanoi, Thao graduated from Hanoi University of Fine Arts in 1995 with a painting major. He is a member of Vietnam Fine Arts Association.

The show at 24 Trang Tien Street will run until June 18.