Music

The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra has always been committed to promoting the Chinese music while breaking new ground for the genre. Its high quality performance has been recognized in the international music arena.It has also been a driving force behind the creation of new works, with a commissioned repertoire of over 2,400 works, new compositions and arrangements included. The ‘Music about China’ series, jointly launched by the HKCO and the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2007, has premiered a considerable number of works by composers from Greater China and beyond, thus promoting Chinese culture and perpetuating the heritage of Chinese music. As the series enters its 15th year, it has been designated as the opening programme of the Hong Kong Arts Festival 2021.

The upcoming concert features a spectrum of highly imaginative music, such as Chan Ming-chi’s new original composition, It’s the East Wind Again from Tale of the Mahjong Heroes. By using alternative musical instruments, Chan captures vividly the many reactions of the players in the game. Blue Notes by Golden Horse Award winner Leon Ko is an ingenious hybrid of the Cantonese nanyin and American blues. It carries the folksy yet graceful sounds of Chinese traditional music as well as the worldly-wise sensibilities of the life of common folks. The cello concerto Zhuang Zhou’s Dream, a tour de force that took Zhao Jiping ten years to complete and premiered in 2008 by the HKCO and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, is a philosophical dialogue between a cello and a Chinese ensemble. It has been taken on tour to top performing venues such as the Carnegie Hall in New York and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In this Hong Kong revival, it should inspire the audience to explore once again the wisdom of Zhuang Zhou.