Talented Vietnamese and foreign classical musicians living in Vietnam and abroad are invited to audition to join the Sun Symphony Orchestra (SSO) – a newly founded private orchestra based in Hanoi.

Sun Symphony Orchestra introduced its management board last week. L-R: Music Director and Principal Conductor Olivier Ochanine, general director Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh, Sun Group CEO Dang Minh Truong, Executive Director Vu Anh Tuan.

With the ambition of establishing an international-standard orchestra in Viet Nam, founding members said they want to bring classical music – often regarded as elite and – closer to the public. 

At the same time, they want to attract talented musicians, especially Vietnamese, to be involved. Presenting Vietnamese classic music to the world someday is another goal of the SSO, which is sponsored by one of Viet Nam’s leading real estate developers, Sun Group.

The SSO introduced its management board last Thursday. French conductor and winner of the 2015 Antal Doráti International Conducting Competition Olivier Ochanine is the music director and principal conductor. Famous TV emcee, concert producer and contrabassist Vu Anh Tuan is executive director.

The five-member board also includes President Tran Khanh, Vice President Le Thi Bich Tran, and general director Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh – all are successful businesspeople with a great passion for on classic music.

 “As a non-profit orchestra, revenue is not our main goal,” General Director Quynh Anh said at the launching of the SSO’s management board last week. 

“We focus only on how to create a proper environment to nurture and develop Vietnamese music talents, then we can offer audiences nationwide regular opportunities to enjoy classical concerts.”

“Especially, we have a long-term plan to bring world-famous artists to Viet Nam to perform with the SSO,” she added.

Aiming to offer the best possible resources for the SSO to develop as an international-standard orchestra, the management board also has revealed a costly plan to build a new Opera House near West Lake to serve as a home for the orchestra.

The future Opera House will be the first project in Viet Nam by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Piano is well-known for his delicate and refined approach to building, displayed in museums and other structures around the world including the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Shard in London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Auditorium Niccolo Paganini in Parma, and the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.

When awarding Piano the “Nobel of Architecture” Pritzker Prize in 1998, the Pritzker Jury compared him to Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Brunelleschi, highlighting "his intellectual curiosity and problem-solving techniques as broad and far ranging as those earlier masters of his native land".

Speaking at the press conference, CEO of the Sun Group Dang Minh Truong said: “With this building project, we expect our new Opera House will be a new temple of art. We hope it will be an iconic building of Hanoi, like the durian-shaped Esplanade Theatre in Singapore or the sail-designed Sydney Opera House."

Commenting on the establishment of the SSO, Chairman of the Viet Nam Musicians’ Association composer Do Hong Quan said he was touched by the idea of building a new Opera House that will be home to new generations of talented classical artists. “So far, we don’t have any Opera House dedicated only to the classical music yet,” he said.

Musicians who wish to be SSO members should visit the website http://sunsymphony.vn/ for further recruitment information. 

VNS