Upcoming Events in Hanoi & HCMC

Saigon Classical Music Group will offer a free Christmas concert on December 16. Photo courtesy of the organiser

Saigon Classical Music Group will perform a free concert on December 16 featuring traditional carols like Nebo I Zemlya (Heaven and Earth), Angels We Have Heard on High, and O Holy Night and compositions by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Liszt.

“Sounds of Heaven” will see young musicians and singers such as Phạm Khánh Ngọc, Vũ Minh Trí, and Thái Ngọc Thùy Trang perform.

The concert, at the HCM City Association of Literature and Arts, 81 Trần Quốc Thảo Street, District 3, will start at 7pm.

Participants can register for the show at https://ticketbox.vn/event/sounds-of-heaven-69692/44967.

More cultural activities for mountainous areas

The traditional culture and heritage of ethnic people will be preserved and promoted following the MoU signed by the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. - Photo vietnamtourism.com

Cultural, sports and tourism activities will be organised more regularly in the mountainous regions and ethnic communities in the period between 2017-2022.

The memorandum of understanding was signed yesterday by the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to intensify these activities with the aim of promoting the diversified cultures and traditional identity of ethnic groups and promoting tourism in the mountainous regions, according to Trịnh Thị Thủy, deputy minister of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry.

Accordingly, work will be carried out including raising awareness among ethnic people of preserving culture and traditions of scripts, costumes, festivals and cuisine; and encouraging local people to develop tourism and protect the environment.

German techno DJ to perform in District 2

German techno DJ Heiko Laux will perform at the fifth anniversary celebration of Heart Beat on December 15. Photo from the artist’s Facebook page

German techno DJ Heiko Laux will perform at the fifth anniversary of Heart Beat, a Sài Gòn-based underground music community, on December 15.

Laux is the owner of Kanzleramt, a label founded in 1994 to popularise contemporary techno.

He has released several albums and extended plays, and toured the world.

At the HCM City event, he will perform together with resident DJs Javier Marimon, Chris Wolter and Ouch and visual artist Erol.

The concert will begin at 9pm at an outdoor venue called “The Jungle” located at the foot of Phú Mỹ Bridge along Võ Chí Công Street in District 1. The entrance fee is VNĐ150,000.

Christmas market at Saigon Outcast

District 2 bar Saigon Outcast will host a Christmas Market on December 16-17. Photo courtesy of the organiser

District 2 outdoor bar Saigon Outcast will host a Christmas Market on December 16-17 that will sell artworks, accessories, clothes, ornaments, home-baked food and snacks, and drinks.

There will be live music performances and kids’ corners.

The event will begin at 12pm and the entrance fee is VNĐ20,000. The bar is at 188/1 Nguyễn Văn Hưởng Street.

Celebrate German Christmas market

Cửa Bắc church provides a perfect festive backdrop for the Christmas Market.- Photo nhathoconggiao.com

Get in the holiday spirit at Hà Nội’s first German Christmas Market open from 2pm today at Cửa Bắc Church.

Co-organised by the German Embassy and the Goethe Institut Hanoi, the three-day market will be an ideal place for visitors to sample typical Christmas treats and beverages, buy hand-made items, and enjoy a cup of hot wine.

With its tower and picturesque windows, the church provides a perfect festive backdrop for the market, which will sell typical ‘Stollen’ pastry and hand-crafted Vietnamese products.

The event will begin with a Christmas Concert performed by the Sức Sống Mới Bamboo Ensemble, featuring classical music and international Christmas favourites. The concert will be held at 6pm tonight.

The market will opens for three days, from 2-9pm today and tomorrow, and from 10am-9pm on Saturday. Admission is free. Cửa Bắc Church is at 56 Phan Đình Phùng Street.

TPD to screen ’The Reader’

TPD will present a screening of the Oscar-winning movie The Reader tomorrow night. Photo desimartini.com

The Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents (TPD) will present a screening of Oscar-winning film The Reader. The screening, part of the ‘Literature on Screen’ movie month, will start at 7.30pm tomorrow night.

Directed by Stephen Daldry, the drama/romance movie, which is based on the novel of the same name German novel by Bernhard Schlink, stars Ralph Fiennes, Kate Winslet and David Kross.

It tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teen has an affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz (played by Kate Winslet), who disappears only to resurface years later as a defendant in a war crimes trial.

Winslet won a number of awards for her role, including the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2009.

The movie will be presented in English with Vietnamese subtitles. TPD is at 51 Trần Hưng Đạo Street (4th floor). Requested donation (at the door): VNĐ20,000/person.

Exhibition shows Red River fluctuation

The research described the fluctuation of the Red River and its role with regard to spiritual monuments’ relocations and modifications.

Goethe Institut will host the exhibition Vestige of a Land which will present part of a collaborated project during six months between artist Lê Giang, Sino-Nom researcher Nguyễn Đình Hưng, architect Phạm Thanh Thủy, and environmental consultant Nguyễn Thùy Dương on communal houses in Northern Việt Nam and alongside the Red River’s water flow.

The body of work mirrored the fluctuation of the Red River and its role upon spiritual monuments’ relocations and modifications. Throughout the research process, the importance of these sites have been reinvestigated. Due to historical social changes and educational reforms, the liaison between modern society and the past has been heavily disrupted. These alternations drastically transformed social activities that once took place within the monuments. Much of the surviving structures are falling into decay and slowly losing their architectural identities.

Regarding these spiritual relics’ disappearances, the exhibition boasts a question in connection with the ability of traversing oneself within the present while visualising about the future.

The exhibition Vestige of a Land is part of the project Shaping the future – A cultural perspective, which was founded and supported by the Goethe-Institut Hanoi.

The free entry exhibition will open from 6pm tomorrow, and run until January 12, 2018. Goethe-Institut Hanoi is at 56-58 Nguyễn Thái Học Street. An artist talk will be held on December 20, at 7pm.