Artworks celebrate Party’s birthday

An exhibition on the Vietnamese Communist Party opened yesterday at the Viet Nam Museum of Fine Arts to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Party.

On display will be 52 artworks including sculptures, posters, graphics and paintings by 45 leading artists such as Tran Van Can, Diep Minh Chau and Nguyen Sang.

The exhibition will run until next Sunday at 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Ha Noi.

Ha Noi hosts Hungarian concert

Concerts to mark 60 years of Vietnamese-Hungarian friendship began yesterday at Ha Noi Opera House.

The line up tonight includes Les Preludes and Hungarian Fantasia by Franz Liszt, Peregi Werbunk by Leo Weiner and Larghetto and Carmen Fantazia by Jeno Hubay, which will be performed by the Viet Nam Symphony Orchestra and Hungarian artists under Japanese conductor Tetsuji Honna.

Tieng Hat Song Huong (Singing on the Huong River) will also be performed by Vietnamese artist Hoang Duong and cellist Ngo Hoang Quan.

The programme has been organised by the Hungarian Embassy in Viet Nam, the Fund for Hungarian and Vietnamese Culture and the Viet Nam-Hungary Friendship Association.

Top nation bassist releases CD

Quoc Hung, arguably one of the top bassists in Viet Nam, will release his first album on Ha Noi to celebrate the city’s 1,000th anniversary.

The album includes nine well-known romantic songs. Veteran musicians such as Phu Quang, Tran Manh Hung and Ngoc Khoi also perform on the album.

Hung has won many opera prizes and performed at home and abroad.

Saint Giong festival passes muster

A dossier on the Saint Giong festival, which was sent to UNESCO for intangible cultural heritage recognition, will now be submitted to the world body’s Intergovernmental Committee for further appraisal, the Cultural Heritage Department said.

The result of the second assessment round will be announced in June. If it is accepted, a final decision will be announced by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Kenya in November.

The Giong Festival is held on the ninth day of the fourth lunar month each year.

Exhibition of ethnic instruments

An exhibition entitled Traditional Musical Instruments of Viet Nam’s Ethnic Groups opened yesterday at Viet Nam’s Culture and Art Exhibition Centre, 2 Hoa Lu Street, Ha Noi, and will run until next Wednesday.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has joined with Viet Nam’s Culture and Art Exhibition Centre, the National Conservatory and the Institute of Musicology to hold the exhibition.

City okays temporary Tet parking

The municipal administration will allow the Youth Volunteer Public Service Company in HCM City to use parts of pavements on several roads as temporary motorbike parking lots to meet increasing demand during the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

The temporary parking plots will be set up on roads near the city’s entertainment centres like April 30 Park, Le Van Tam Park, Tao Dan Park, the Labour Culture Palace, September 23 Park (that will host the Tet Flower Market) and Nguyen Hue Boulevard (that will be turned to a Flower Street during the festival).

The approval of temporary parking plots on pavements will help minimise the number of unlicensed parking plots that charge higher fees with poor quality service, officials said.

PV