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Press Releases

Majestic Drums I
The Opening Concert for the Hong Kong Drum Festival and the 27th Orchestral Season of Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra

It is not every day that two of the most representative figures in local percussion music meet and make music together: Lung Heung-wing, Principal Percussion of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra until quite recently, and Yim Hok-man, the incumbent Percussion Principal at the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, will be joined by other famous percussionists from all over the world. They include Li Minxiong, the seventy-something virtuoso from Shanghai who is making a rare comeback to the stage; Ubulikasam, the Uighur dab (large tambourine) artiste from the Central Song and Dance Troupe in Beijing, who has traveled the world over performing; the Zampa Ufujishi Daiko which is made up of Daiko drum experts from Japan; and the three-piece Africa Djembe from Africa. The conglomeration of the most vigorous sounds of the world will make this occasion truly unique.

The concert opens with the contemporary sounds of A Poem on the Drum by Tan Dun, which is followed by the high-stepping, exotic sounds of the Xinjiang Dab solo, the Daiko performance from Japan, and the African and South American drum combo by Hong Kong's very own Island Sun Drum led by Lung Heung-wing, and the vibrant beats of the Africa Djembe.

The second half of the programme features orchestral sounds with drums leading, such as the famous piece by Li Minxiong, Flying Dragons and Jumping Tigers (with the composer himself playing in the lead); the lyrical and robust sounds of China's Sunan Shifangu in Man-Ting-Fang; the Chaozhou ethnic gong-and-drum music, Festivity of the Masses, led by Yim Hok-man; and the grand finale, starring Yim and Lung, in a piece taken from the exuberant percussion concerto by Kuan Nai-chung, The Sun.

A line-up of this calibre is not something one can see, or hear, every day. If you miss it, you run the danger of hating yourself forever.

Drums and Gongs on the Battlefield of Ancient China
In ancient China, drums and gongs played a significant role in the military strategy on the battlefield: the rolling of drums was a message for the soldiers to charge, and the sound of gongs meant stop charging and retreat to camp. Hence the two phrases "jin gu qi min" (literally "gold and drum sound together") which means "when all the gongs and drums sound" and "ming jin shou bin", (literally "sound the gold and retrieve soldiers"), meaning "recall the troops at the sound of the gong" – in both cases, "ji" (gold) refers to "metal", that is the different types of gongs and percussion instruments made of bronze etc..