Published:  00:00 Thursday - March 11, 2010

The Ascending Dragon Music Festival will kick off this week in Hanoi with musicians from the Grammy Award-winning Southwest Chamber Music orchestra and members of the Vietnam National Academy of Music (VNAM).

The six-week festival, a collaboration between musicians from the US and Vietnam, is to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi capital.

During the cultural exchange, 19 Americans will visit Vietnam in March, while 19 Vietnamese will tour California in April and May for three weeks.

Performances in Vietnam will take place at the Vietnam National Academy of Music, the Hanoi Opera House and the HCM City Conservatory Concert Hall.

World premieres of newly commissioned works by Alexandra du Bois, Kurt Rohde, Pham Minh Thanh and Vu Nhat Tan will be held on March 11. The premier of American composer Ellicott Carter’s “On Conversing with Paradise” will be held on March 19. The famed musician is now 101 years old.