Phillips Exeter Academy (PEA) Concert Choir and Chamber Orchestra will travel the length of Vietnam, from Hanoi to Hue, Hoi An, Da Nang, to Ho Chi Minh City, performing concerts of classical Western music and Vietnamese folk songs and doing cultural exchanges as to celebrate the 20th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States from March 8 to 20, 2015.
The 28-voice Concert Choir, under the direction of Kristofer Johnson, and the Chamber Orchestra, with conductors Peter Schultz and Rohan Smith, will perform American and European selections by: Leonard Bernstein, John Philip Sousa, Scott Joplin, Dolly Parton, Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Francis Poulenc, Gabriel Fauré, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Arcangelo Corelli, William Billings and more. They have also prepared two Vietnamese folk songs, Trống Cơm and Lý Kéo Chài, arranged especially for the tour by Vietnamese musician and composer Vân-Ánh Võ.
During the 14-day “Peace and Innovation” tour, the ensembles will partner with musicians and vocalists from the Vietnam National Academy of Music and from the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music. PEA ensembles will perform one concert in Hanoi on March 11 and one concert in Ho Chi Minh City on March 19. These concerts are free and open to the public.
The ensembles also have another performance on March 10 with actors and musicians of the esteemed Vietnam Cheo Theatre, under the direction of Director and Favored Artist Thanh Ngoan; and several cultural exchanges with students from Gifted Schools in Vietnam such as Hanoi Amsterdam, Quoc Hoc Hue, and Mekong University.
Boston Global Forum Editor-in-Chief Nguyen Anh Tuan has sent the congratulation on the tour and emphasized: “…Consider these students as special envoys sending powerful messages through great works of music. Their performance will inspire dreams of a world where only peace, innovation, benevolence and tolerance matter.”
About Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy (www.exeter.edu) is a coeducational, independent school, located in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA. Founded in 1781 by John Phillips, Exeter has a tradition of academic excellence, a distinguished faculty, and a long history of educating young people to find their place in the world. It originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of the school’s charter to foster goodness and knowledge, a Phillips Exeter Academy education is free to any admitted student whose family income is $75,000 or less and the diverse student body comes from a variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds.