City orchestra seeks right setting for new instruments
17:00 07/04/2009

     

The HCM City Symphony Orchestra and Conservatory Theatre are scrambling to find a place to house 81 expensive instruments imported from overseas.

Vo Dang Tin, director of the theatre, said the new instruments, worth VND47 billion (US$2.76 million), included three grand pianos, each worth between $180,000 and $250,000.

The last items of the imported consignment are scheduled to arrive at the Sai Gon Port on April 20, but Tin and his staff have not been able to find a suitable place for their precious assets.

The most expensive grand piano, the $250,000 Austrian-made Bosrsdrjrr, is being kept in separate parts in containers in the corridor of theatre's temporary office, which is a deteriorating cinema house on Nguyen Trai Street.

They cannot assemble the piano and move it into storage even if they could find one suitable for it, Tin said.

"The piano must be positioned firmly on the stage after it is fine tuned."

The theatre staff said they appreciated the city's generosity in purchasing expensive musical instruments to support the theatre's development.

Furthermore, the artists said, they are waiting for a better place to perform with such modern, high quality instruments.

"We would like to move to and perform at the municipal Opera House pending the construction of a new theatre for our orchestra," Tran Vuong Thach, conductor of the Symphony Orchestra, was quoted by the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper as saying.

The present facility is too small to house the theatre staff and its ambience hinders the artists' creative activities, Thach said.

Five years have passed since the city leaders decided to demolish the old office of the city's Lottery Company and build a theatre at 23 Le Duan Avenue, but the project continues, to remain on paper.

The Lottery Company building still stands as they failed to find another home.

Tin and his staff have high hopes for the city People's Committee plans for a new theatre to be built at the September 23 Park, which covers 12,000sq.m.

While awaiting the final say from the city authorities, the artists have to continue playing every night at the old cinema.

The cinema is considered too cramped to nurture the growing orchestra.

 

 

 

Source : vietnamnet.vn