30/5/10

Music stars from seven nations set for Hue Festival debut


Music stars from seven nations set for Hue Festival debut
Last updated: 5/28/2010 12:05


Highly popular award-winning artists and bands from seven countries will perform for the first time at the biennial Hue Festival in June.
Festival organizers said artists from a total of 27 countries including Vietnam will perform during the festival.

This year’s edition will welcome first-time participants from Cuba, Denmark, Haiti, Mexico, Norway, Poland, and Senegal.

Cuba will send the Los Tradiconales band which has won many national and international awards during their 58 years, while Denmark is going to bring one of their oldest bands, MI22, which gathers musicians from the famous Rhythmic Music Institute in Copenhagen.

The music band from Haiti will be conducted by Bélo, a singer, songwriter and guitarist who has won several awards including the Prix RFI Découvertes 2006.

Guitarist Paco Rentería will represent Mexico. Rentería is considered the most successful guitarist in the country’s history. President Felipe Calderón this year named him the music ambassador for Mexico.

Poland will send traditional art troupe Jedliniok, named after a dance from the Jedlina Zdrój region. The dance troupe has represented Poland at many international traditional art festivals.

New approach

The festival, which will last for nine days (June 5-13), will deploy a modern twist to traditional arts in presenting four main events: Dem hoang cung (Royal night); Le te Nam giao (Nam Giao offering ritual), Hanh trinh mo coi (The country’s revolutionary history) and Huyen thoai Song Huong (Legend of the Perfume River).

The events will be a combination of concerts, parades and lighting shows.

Le Quy Duong, events director for the festival, said that apart from preserving and presenting the traditional culture and arts of Hue Town, the programs will use hitherto unused art approaches to distinguish Vietnamese characters in an international cultural milieu.

23/5/10

VIETNAM NEWS PACO RENTERÍA CONCERT


Mexican guitarist to Free Play in Ha Noi

HA NOI — Mexico, the land of tequila and mariachi bands, has offered the world another gift in virtuoso guitar player Paco Renteria.
Renteria will perform for the first time in Viet Nam on June 14 at the Ha Noi Opera House in celebration of the bicentennial anniversary of Mexican Independence and the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and Mexico.
The concert is also a gift from the Mexican Embassy to celebrate Ha Noi's 1,000th anniversary.
Renteria started playing guitar at the age of seven and graduated from music school by age 14.
The audience will enjoy explosive Latino passion combined with sensual guitar playing in a new style created by Renteria and appropriately named, Free Play.
With roots in gypsy flamenco, Afrikaans, oriental and progressive jazz rhythms, Free Play is a new sound and rhythm which takes the listener through various stages of sensuality and bliss.
Renteria will perform with eight instrumentalists to combine the sounds of his guitar with drums, violins, flutes and trumpets.
With the release of his new albumTalisman, Renteria has organised a 2010 World Tour. His musical journey will last until 2011, taking him to places across the globe such as Chile, Australia, France, the US and Viet Nam.
Last February, he was appointed Ambassador of Mexican Music by President Felipe Calderon.
Renteria will play in Ha Noi after performances at the Hue Festival from June 7-11