The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra will give the concert "Painting with Chinese Music" at the City Hall Concert Hall on Saturday May 10^th 2008, 8pm. The programme features works by the famous Hong Kong composer Law Wing-fai, with a focus on his compositions for the pipa and Chinese plucked-strings.

    Law Wing-fai is one of the most acclaimed Hong Kong composers with a diverse repertoire that spans serious and commercial music and winner of the Asian Composers' League Award, the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Award, the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Original Score, and Composer of the Year award by the Hong Kong Artists' Guild.

    Wong Chi-ching, Pipa Principal of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, will join hands with the Wuji Ensemble to perform in the concert. The first half of the concert Reverberating Pucked-strings consists of elegant classical works which accentuate the essence of plucked-strings instruments: Ying Zhou Sceneries which is newly arranged in 2006, and the three ancient tunes Verdant Scene Dotted with Floating Flowers, As the Moon Rises (in miniature) and Magpies Vying for Plum Blossoms, are full manifestations of the expressive aspects of the pipa and plucked-strings ensemble. Full of the flavours of dance music, the lively rhythm of Visions Beyond brings a feeling of the free movement of the wind. Taste of Tian Hua's Splendours depicts the scene of a moonlit night in gentle breeze and the feelings and aspirations of the musician. The first two movements of Blank Oriental, winning composition of the 2005 CASH Golden Sail Award, will also be performed.

    Second half of the concert The Poetry of Pipa is featuring the pipa. Ink Spirit is inspired by a painting from the Song Dynasty. The composer uses the techniques of modern music to catch the free and relaxed sentiments of the ancient people depicted in the painting and to express his love of the art of Chinese ink painting. The aesthetics of the movements in Chinese calligraphy and the lyrical as well as thunderstorm-like characteristics of the pipa are deployed in A Thousand Sweeps to express the powerful free flow of the music through the contrasting sounds of the various instruments. The concert will also premiere Law's new composition Flowing Phantasm. With the interchanging of the various sections of instruments, the composer recalls his childhood memories of the ambience of the waves reflecting the neon lights from the shores while he was crossing the harbour on the ferry. The music is also the composer's reminiscence of the old Star Ferry pier.

    Tickets for "Painting with Chinese Music" concert are now available at all URBTIX Outlets at $250, 180 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.

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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.

Law Wing-fai
Law Wing-fai, described as the "most inspired composer in Hong Kong" by the South China Morning Post music critic Harry Rolnick, has a long list of honours over the past twenty years that recognizes his position as a leading composer. From as early as 1982, his major awards include Irino Memorial Award presented at the Asian Composers' Conference and Festival, the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Original Score, 'Composer of the Year' by the Hong Kong Artists' Guild, etc.He was a multiple winner of the CASH Golden Sail Music Award between 2001 and 2006, with his opera Dreaming Plum Blossoms Away, his music for pipa and orchestra, Flowing Fancies, music for plucked strings, Feng Liu and music for pipa and orchestra A Thousand Sweeps. In 2005, he won the Best Original Music Award for his score for the drama production Peach Blossom Fan. Law has a diversified repertoire that spans serious and commercial music. He is currently Composer-in-Residence at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he has been Head of Composition for many years and a faculty member since 1984. He is currently Artistic Director to the Wuji Ensemble.

Wong Chi-ching    Pipa
Wong Chi-ching entered the China Broadcast Chinese Orchestra in 1976 and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1987 where she is currently the Section Leader of Plucked-strings and Pipa Principal. Wong is a keen supporter of modern music, and has given premieres of works for solo pipa at international music festivals, the ISCM World Music Days, and with various dance companies. Some of her notable appearances include performing When Mountains Roar for Chinese-Western orchestra with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in 1997, followed by a collaboration with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta at Saint-Riquier Festival in France in 2001. In 2002, she performed Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra by Tan Dun at the New Vision Arts Festival in Hong Kong, under the baton of the composer himself. In September 2003, she went to Japan to perform A Thousand Sweeps with the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra. It was followed by repeat performances of Law Wing-fai's pipa concerto, Flowing Fancies, with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, she was part of the Hong Kong delegation to Canada to perform in the Chinese New Music Festival.

Wuji Ensemble
The highly unusual ensemble of Chinese plucked string instruments - the Wuji Ensemble - was founded in January 2003, with the aim to extend the possibilities of these instruments to new boundaries and to promote Chinese culture and contemporary art. Members of the ensemble are students and graduates of local tertiary institutions, and apart from weekly rehearsals, they also study calligraphy, meditation, Peking opera and Chinese literature and fine art. Wuji performs regularly at various important events and venues including the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the City Hall, Hong Kong Space Museum and Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Centre, as well as at universities in Hong Kong.