HCMC - Joanna Marcinkowska, one of the leading pianists of Poland's younger generation, will star in a HBSO concert at the Saigon Opera House on November 11.

She will play Chopin's Polish Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra and Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor. Before that, we will hear the HBSO orchestra in Beethoven's First Symphony. Marcinkowska first appears with Chopin's Polish Fantasy, a work which lasts 15 minutes. It is a much-admired work that combining lyricism with dignified heroism. She then returns to the stage to play the solo part in Grieg's Piano Concerto. This was the only concerto, for any instrument, written by the celebrated Norwegian composer. It premiered in 1868 and has proved highly popular ever since. Joanna Marcinkowska won first prize in 1996 at the International Piano Competition in Memory of Artur Rubinstein, and first prize again in 2002 at the European Chopin Competition in Darmstadt. She has performed in most of the European countries, plus the USA and China. In 2009 she conducted a two-week piano class in Beijing, followed by a public piano recital. The concert will be conducted by the Polish conductor Wojciech Czepiel (born in 1959). He conducted a program of works by famous German composers in Hanoi in May 2019, having previously conducted the Hanoi Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert in November 2018. Tickets in Saigon are priced at VND400,000 to VND750,000, with a special concession for students of VND80,000 on production of a valid student card. The event begins at 8 p.m.