The Thunder Bolt

Concordia International School Hanoi celebrated the holiday season with its annual Middle and High School Christmas Concert, a magnificent display of student talent and musical education that spanned centuries and continents. The program highlighted not only the students' technical growth but also their ability to communicate complex emotion and style through performance.

At this year’s Christmas Concert, the High School and Middle School music ensembles invited the community to reflect on music itself as “the original human art form.” Drawing on the 19th‑century debate between “program music” (music about something) and “absolute music” (music for its own sake), the evening’s theme highlighted how words, melody, and harmony together express gratitude, joy, grief, and wonder across cultures and centuries. Mr. Wendt’s opening letter framed the concert as a celebration of music as a universal language that can cut through our modern “Tower of Babel,” uniting speakers of many tongues in one shared experience.

The concert's first half established a high bar by connecting young players to the great orchestral masters. The Middle School Ensemble bravely tackled iconic symphonic repertoire, performing arrangements of works by Beethoven and Dvořák. This gave the students valuable practice in skills like balance and phrasing within melodies instantly recognizable to the audience, demonstrating their developing instrumental prowess.

The Middle School Choir followed, shifting focus to language, rhythm, and joy. Their set included the challenging yet rewarding Karl Jenkins’ “Adiemus,” which required them to communicate meaning purely through vocal color and dynamics. The performance then transitioned into confident part-singing and crisp diction with a lively medley of favorite seasonal carols.

After the intermission, the High School Orchestra took the stage for a vivid journey through the European classical canon. They impressed the audience with sharp contrasts in style, moving from the technical agility and biting energy of Vivaldi’s “Winter” to the elegant, demanding waltz phrases of Strauss’s “Blue Danube.” Under the guidance of guest conductor Mr. Do Kien Cuong, the orchestra showcased discipline and masterful skill.

The evening culminated in a powerful Shared Choral Finale that brought singers and players across divisions together. The High School Choir and Orchestra demonstrated careful balance in pieces by John Rutter and Mozart. The grand finale came when the HS and MS Choirs combined for Pärt Uusberg’s “Muusika,” beautifully setting an Estonian poem. This moving conclusion perfectly illustrated the concert's central theme: music communicates emotion and meaning beyond the limits of language.

In the lobby, Mr. Green, Ms. Pham, and members of the Arts Honor Society welcomed families to view works from the High School and Middle School visual arts classes. This exhibition, running alongside the concert, underscored how students are exploring parallel themes of expression, identity, and imagination across different media. The combination of live performance and visual art offered a fuller picture of the creativity developing in the school’s arts programs.

After talking to Mr. Green, his goal is to use the art exhibition as a snapshot of student growth, specifically focusing on improving the understanding of composition at both the middle school and high school levels. He explained that students typically enter the program with a strong grasp of technical foundations and mediums. This foundational work often involves the students working in black and white while learning how to utilize the studio space. The exciting part is watching the artwork "take a life of its own" as students progress into the more advanced courses.

Mr. Green emphasized that through perseverance, students begin to develop their own story and narrative. When they reach the AP level, they are empowered to truly explore their personal interests, shifting their focus from purely technical and compositional skills to more conceptual work. Ultimately, the exhibition highlights the foundational skills in fine arts technique and medium that have been the core focus in recent years.

By the time the final chords faded, the concert had done more than mark the Christmas season; it had invited the community to consider why music matters. Through four sung languages, invented texts, and instrumental works from Vivaldi to Dvořák, students demonstrated that music can bridge cultures and generations, giving young performers a powerful way to express who they are. As Mr. Wendt urged in his welcome, the audience was asked to “listen with humility and an open mind”—and in doing so, many left with a renewed sense of how deeply music can inspire and connect us.

Learn more about Concordia Hanoi's Fine Arts program.