Greek conductor to perform at Christmas concert in HCM City

Greek conductor Petros Karpathakis will lead a special Christmas concert at the Ho Chi Minh City Opera House on December 19.

The concert will open with The Nutcracker Suite, Op 71a by Tchaikovsky, and Jazz Suite No. 2 by Shostakovich, featuring the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera’s (HBSO) orchestra.

The second half of the night will include familiar Christmas songs like White Christmas by Irving Berlin, Variations on Jingle Bells by James Lord Pierpont, and Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! by Jules Styne.

Soprano Cho Hae-Ryong from the Republic of Korea will sing Cantique de Noël (O Holy Night) by Adolphe-Charles Adam.

The Saigon Ladies choir will perform the traditional carol Ding Dong Merrily on High, while tenor Phan Trung Huu Kiet will sing Adeste Fideles by John Francis Wade.

The concert will also include Panis Angelicus (“Bread of Angels”) by Cesar Franck, Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God”) by George Bizet, and Ave Maria by Frank Schubert.

The performance will feature soprano Pham Khanh Ngoc, tenor Phạm Trang, Ly Hoang Kim, Tran Thanh Nam and the HBSO choir.

Karpathakis studied piano, trumpet, violin, percussion, singing, orchestration, chorus and conducting in Greece, the US and the UK.

He was a pianist before he started his conducting career in 2006. He has conducted all of Greece’s major orchestras such as the Athens Symphony Orchestra, E.R.T. (National Radio Symphony Orchestra), and the Greek National Opera Symphony Orchestra.

This year, he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Azerbaijan, the Athens Municipality Symphony Orchestra, and HBSO.