Our regular feature, brought to you in association with Duty Free Global from Ireland, celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns related to the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
VIETNAM. Has there ever been a travel retail industry gala dinner act like it?
Meet Minh Ho, a prodigiously talented ten-year-old violinist who entertained guests at The Trinity Forum Gala Dinner in Ho Chi Minh City last week (6 November).
Not only did he deliver a virtuoso performance but the young boy lent poignant and powerful emotional impetus to the evening’s fundraising auction on behalf of cleft charity Smile Train.
For as guests discovered, Minh Ho was born with a cleft lip in 2014, the disfigurement later treated at a Smile Train partner hospital in Vietnam. His condition and the subsequent medical attention he received to correct it didn’t stop him from pursuing an early, innate love of music.
Minh Ho started playing the violin at the age of three and is now a first-year student at the acclaimed Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music.
This wonderfully talented young musician won the hearts of everyone in the room as he explained shyly but in perfect English how Smile Train had fixed his cleft and enabled him to smile. Take a look and listen to our clip below from his performance on the evening. You can also view some of his other recitals via the YouTube links below.
Minh Ho enriched all of us, underlining not only his remarkable talent but the life-changing work of Smile Train.
The auction, superbly organised by IPP Travel Retail Chief Executive Phillip Nguyen and brilliantly conducted by auctioneer Barry Geoghegan of Duty Free Global, raised a remarkable US$118,500, enough to restore the smiles of more than 450 children. ✈
