Hanoi National Conservatory of Music is a national music education institute training 1000 students from the primary to postgraduate level. It was established in 1956, and continued to nurture world-class musicians even during the war years. To support the plan by the conservatory to assemble a full 100 piece orchestra, the Japan Art Association invited Hikotaro Yazaki, a conductor resident in Paris, to Hanoi in 1998, to give the orchestra specialist instruction. The result was a series of commemorative concerts in Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Min City. All the expenses for this preparation and tour were funded by the grant. In 1999 the conservatory orchestra visited Tokyo at the invitation of Ministry of Culture and Information of Japan, and gave their first concert overseas.