Sixteen-year-old piano prodigy Nguyen Viet Trung will perform with the Viet Nam National Sym-phony Orchestra this Thursday and Friday at the Ha Noi Opera House, marking the first concert the young pianist will have played with the orchestra.

Trung will play Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3 under the baton of Honna Tetsuji, while the orchestra will also perform Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the so-called Pastoral Symphony.

"I am very happy and honoured to take part in this event," said Trung. "It will be the first time that I have performed this music. It is very difficult to play this composition but I'll try my best."

"We also hope that the show can help bring the symphony closer to Vietnamese audiences," said the orchestra's director, Nguyen Tri Dung. "The Vietnamese public is not very familiar with this kind of music."

Trung, who currently lives and studies in Warsaw, has made a name for himself in both Viet Nam and internationally. He first performed at the Ha Noi Opera House three years ago, when he was only 13 years old.

Trung has won 10 international awards in Poland in his 10 years of piano studies there. In 2004, he came in second in a competition for young pianists in Zyrardow, Poland. In 2005, he won first prize in the Emmy Alberg competition in Lodz, and in 2006 he received a special prize in the Chopin competition in Mazowiecki as well as the Golden Note for the best performer of Mozart compositions. In 2008, he took second place against pianists three to four years older in an international competition in Plock named for Ludwik Stefanski and Halina Czerny Stefanska.

This coming March, he will be among eight young talents from around the world who have been invited to perform at the Junior Academy Eppan in Italy, along with the famous artist Andrea Bonatta. Trung, who idolises his teacher, the famous Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son, wishes to have a chance more internationally after completing his studies in Poland. Eventually, he said, he would like to return to Viet Nam and set up a music shool.

The concerts will begin at 8pm, with tickets at prices ranging from VND200- 500,000 available in advance at the Opera House.