The choir and soloists of the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) are scheduled to hold a special concert at the municipal Opera House on December 16 – 17 to celebrate the Christmas season.
The Christmas concert is set to begin with an orchestra piece called Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson, an American composer of light music who lived from 1908 to 1975.
Following this will be two pieces, including Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate featuring Pham Khanh Ngoc, a female vocalist who has won First Prize at the Concour Festival in 2019. A chorus from Handel’s Messiah, For Unto Us a Child is Born, will then be played.
Furthermore, German Christmas song Maria Wiegenlied by Max Reger will be performed by soprano soloist Duyen Nguyet.
A Christmas Scherzo by American arranger and keyboard player Don Sebesky and O Holy Night will then be played by Dao Mac, a baritone who plays many roles in HBSO operas, from Papageno in The Magic Flute to Doctor Falk in Die Fledermaus.
Dao Mac will sing It’s beginning to look like Christmas by Michael Buble, a celebrated Canadian composer.
The solo orchestra will return with Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, before leading into Variations on Jingle Bells led by the HBSO chorus.
Most notably, a group of Korean children residing in Ho Chi Minh City will then bring to the stage a performance Santa Claus is Coming to Town, as well as singing festive songs from the movie Home Alone.
The concert will be conducted by Tran Nhat Minh who has trained in both Russia and Italy and is the chorus master of the HBSO.
