FORT COLLINS, CO – Fort Collins Symphony Music Director Wes Kenney will conduct the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra (VNSO) at the Hanoi Opera House on January 5, 2018 as part of an ongoing international exchange program. Maestro Kenney will conduct the VNSO’s performance of Copland’s Suite from Rodeo and the Dvořák Symphony No. 6. Violinist Do Phoung Nhi will play the Bruch Violin Concerto she performed for Fort Collins in May 2016.
The exchange has been several years in the planning and took place two seasons ago when Do Phoung Nhi was introduced to Fort Collins audiences. Her parents Le Hoang Lan and Do Xuan Thang are professional violinists and members of the VNSO. Both Maestro Kenney and his wife Leslie Stewart Kenney, Director of String Pedagogy at Colorado State University, will teach classes at the Vietnam Academy of Music during the time they are in Hanoi. Ms. Stewart Kenney, an accomplished violinist, also has been invited to perform with the VNSO on January 5th.
The trip is sponsored by David and Alison Dennis of Fort Collins.
The Fort Collins Symphony was begun in 1949, when a Julliard-trained musician, Wilfred Schwartz, returned from service in World War II to take a teaching position at Colorado A & M (now Colorado State University). He viewed this position as a temporary stop-gap until he could find work back East. Soon after his arrival, he formed a community orchestra.
Will stayed in Fort Collins where he continued to develop and lead the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, which grew and flourished under his direction and guidance.
Now in its 68th Season, the Fort Collins Symphony is a professional symphony recognized as Northern Colorado’s premier arts organization. Under the direction of Maestro Wes Kenney, the Fort Collins Symphony continues Will Schwartz’s vision of providing Northern Colorado with beautiful, expertly performed symphonic music.
For more information about the Fort Collins Symphony and to follow Maestro Kenney’s blog, please visit www.fcsymphony.org or call 970.482.4823.
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