In what Mayor Bill Bogaard called an event of "truly historic importance" marking a first-time partnership between an American city and Hanoi, 19 Vietnamese musicians and embassy officials were welcomed to Pasadena on Thursday.

Mayor Bill Bogaard right, gives a civic welcome at Pasadena City Hall to open the second part of the Ascending Dragon Music Festival and Cultural Exchange on Thursday. (Walt Mancini / Staff Photographer)

A City Hall ceremony kicked off the American leg of Southwest Chamber Music's six-week "Ascending Dragon Music Festival" - the largest-ever cultural exchange between the two nations.

It came days after 19 members of the Pasadena-based Southwest Chamber orchestra returned from three weeks of joint performances in Vietnam.

Thien Min Nguyen, deputy chief of mission at the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, D.C., said he brought "warm greetings for all American people," and echoed the mayor's description of the "important and historic event" that underscored the growing relationship and cooperation between the two countries.

Nguyen pointed to his country's prime minister's attendance at the recent Nuclear Safety Summit in Washington as an example of that cooperation. The cultural exchange with Pasadena, he said, made him "very, very happy and cheerful" about a new understanding between the former enemies.

He said he was confident that such activities will continue "more and more in the time to come.".

The Southwest and Vietnamese musicians first performed together March 19 at the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam as part of the 1,000th anniversary celebration of the city's founding. They later performed at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory Concert Hall.

Jan Karlin, Southwest's executive director, said the exchange has provided a "wonderful opportunity" for American and Vietnamese musicians to be on stage together.

"The concerts went so well - those (Vietnamese) musicians are absolutely first-class," Karlin said before the ceremony.

"We are providing them with more experience and broad exposure to more kinds of music...Our players had a great time, and everyone made friends for life. It really made an impression on everybody," she said. "We performed together as friends, and after our history together, it was wonderful."

Vietnamese flutist Le Thu Huong said it had been a great opportunity for the musicians to work and perform together, and a chance for Vietnamese audiences - and players - to be exposed to contemporary music.

"It's quite new - people don't play it (in Vietnam) and for the audiences, it was quite a surprise," she said. "We were happy to get the chance to play and learn from each other and speak with the same voice in the way we express music."

Thu Ha Tran, former rector of the Vietnam National Academy of Music, thanked Southwest Chamber Music's leadership and board and the many supporters who worked to bring the festival together.

Jeff von der Schmitt, the orchestra's music director, said it's hard for a musician to see music as a "diplomatic mission," but that's how the successful exchange is being viewed by the U.S. State Department.

Bogaard noted that the music festival celebrates not only the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of Hanoi but the 15th anniversary of the normalization of relations between Vietnam and the United States.

"I consider Pasadena to be highly privileged to be the twin city with Hanoi for hosting the program," the mayor said.

Festival events will go on here though May 3, including a series of five performances at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena and the Colburn School in Los Angeles.