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[29th Orchestral Season]
Press Release (2 pages)
10 April 2006
A Heartfelt Concert for ¡§East-West Music Exchange¡¨
HKCO presents ¡§An East-West Crossover¡¨
¡§An East-West Crossover¡¨ concert will be held on April 22, at 8pm, at the Hong Kong City Hall.
The dialogue between Britain and China continues, after the handover of Hong Kong! More specifically, we are talking about music here.
At this concert, six composers from China and Britain come together to conduct a dialogue through Chinese music. It is not every day one hears the work of two British composers played by the Chinese orchestra. The compositions presented on this occasion provide a full spectrum of emotional nuances, including the world premiere of four commissioned works, The Fiery Phoenix, Death II, A Sorrowful Tune and Festivity with the other two, The Sun, The Moon and The Mountains and Fantasia and Dance: from ecstasy to agony, from pain to joy, from meditation to movement, and from reality to fantasy. The fluctuating emotions may well describe the experience of the Hong Kong people after the handover. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, Hong Kong is reborn!
A Post-Performance Talk will be held after the concert where composers will meet and share with the audience their experiences in the composition of the pieces.
Tickets for An East-West Crossover are now available at all URBTIX Outlets at $200, 180, 130 and 100. Half-price tickets are offered for senior citizens, people with disabilities and full-time students. Please refer to the programme leaflet for more details on discount schemes. Enquiries: 3185 1600; Booking Hotline: 2734 9009. Internet Booking: www.urbtix.hk; HKCO website: www.hkco.org .
¢w End ¢w
Press Enquiry¡G Ms.Alice Ma (Public Relation & Publicity Executive)
Tel ¡G3185 1679 / 9754 0454 Fax¡G2815 5615
E-mail¡Galice@hkco.org HKCO Website¡Gwww.hkco.org
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Artists Biography
Yan Huichang Conductor
National Class One Conductor. As a conductor who has worked with all professional Chinese orchestras in Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, Yan has won the acclaim of the music circles in China and abroad for his artistic and conducting talents. Under his baton, and in collaboration with the famous composer Zhao Jiping, the Symphony Orchestra section of the China National Symphony Orchestra made the soundtrack recordings for such award-winning films as Raise the Red Lantern, Ballad of the Yellow River, and Five Girls and a Rope. Yan was awarded the ¡§Cultural Medallion (Music)¡¨ by the National Arts Council of Singapore in September 2001. Since 2004, he has been a Visiting Professor in many music conservatories. Yan was awarded a Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) by the Chief Executive of HKSAR in 2004 in recognition of his remarkable achievements in Chinese music as well as his efforts in promoting Chinese music.
Richard Storry The Fiery Phoenix
Was born in 1965, Richard Storry studied composition and guitar at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1989, he graduated with high honours and a recital diploma, and winning the Julian Bream prize. Storry is always a member of the TETRA Guitar Quartet, giving concerts all over the world. In his own right, he has appeared on television and radio many times, and has been a musical consultant on a number of plays and musicals in London¡¦s West End. He has travelled globally as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He composed the music to several musicals including Chekhov¡¦s Three Sisters, Rumplestiltskin and Kennedy, all received high acclaims.
Wang Xilin Death II
Born in 1937, Wang Xilin is a National Class One Composer in China and currently Resident Composer of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1962. He was a victim of political persecution between 1964 and 1978 (including the Cultural Revolution), and did not learn western modern music of the 20th Century until he turned forty. It also marked a turning point in his musical language and aesthetics. A prolific composer, Wang has an oeuvre of six symphonies, two symphonic suites, two symphonic choral works and a violin concerto. He won the highest awards for music composition presented by the State three times, with his symphonic suite, Yunnan Symphonic Poem in 1981, the art song Spring Rain in 2000, and Three Symphonic Poems: Murals in 2004. He has scored for more than forty feature films and for television, and has also published several treatises.
Zhu Jianer A Sorrowful Tune
Was born in Tianjin in 1922 and grew up in Shanghai. In 1955 he went to the Soviet Union for further studies at the Moscow Conservatory of Music. Since 1975 he has been a permanent Composer with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and concurrently teaching Composition at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music since 1980. Zhu's oeuvre includes 10 symphonies, 17 overtures, symphonic poems and concertos; the Symphonic Cantata Heroic Poems, etc.. His Symphony No. 4 took Grand Prize at the International Music Composition Prize ¡¥Queen Marie Jose¡¦ of Switzerland. Zhu was presented the ¡¥Outstanding Contribution Award¡¦ at the First Shanghai Literature and the Arts Award in 1991. He is listed in the Grove¡¦s Dictionary of Music and Musicians since 2001.
Wang Ning Festivity
Was born in 1954 and has studied composition and technical theories under several famous composers and musicologist, including Wang Lin, Zhang Shouming, Hou Cunhui, Wang Shu, Wu Zuqiang etc.. He is currently Head of the Department of Composition and Director of its Multimedia Music Centre at the China Conservatory of Music, a council member of the Chinese Musicians Association, and an executive member of the Chinese Nationalities Orchestra Society. Wang is a prolific composer: his music covers a broad range of subjects that demonstrates his solid training, knowledge, insightful musical thoughts, outstanding character and genuine concern for humanistic issues. His works have been frequently performed in China and in music festivals of the world. Some of his notable compositions include The Drunken Celestial, Duet for Erhu and Orchestra, Guo Feng, Symphony No. 3: Call for the Future, Symphonic Prelude No. 1: New Times, etc..
Guo Wenjing The Sun, The Moon and The Mountains
Was born in 1956, Guo Wenjing is currently a professor and supervisor for doctoral candidates at the Department of Composition of the Central Conservatory of Music in China. His most representative works include the opera, Wolf Cub Village (based on the short story by Lu Xun, Diary of a Madman), The Night Banquet, Hard Are the Ways of Sichuan, The Heroic Symphony in B minor, etc.. Guo won seven awards at national composition contests in 1985,1986,1993,1995, 2001 and 2004. He is an honoured recipient of the Special Government Allowance, and holder of various honours and titles in China. The New York Times described Guo as ¡¥the only Chinese composer not having lived overseas for a long time but with an international standing¡¦. His works have been performed at the world¡¦s important festivals in Edinburgh, Paris, Holland and New York, and theatres in London, Frankfurt and Rouen.
John Howard Fantasia and Dance
John Howard was born in 1950 in Glasgow, the UK and is active as a composer, music educator/musicologist, and conductor. He is currently the Director of Examinations of London College of Music & Media, Thames Valley University .His music has been widely commissioned, performed and broadcast internationally, and his output includes three works for the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and one for the pipa virtuoso, Wong Ching Ping. His interest in Chinese music has produced a number of related papers. Recent work includes There the Dance is, for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, two string quartets for the Medici Quartet, etc..
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