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ISCM-ACL World Music Days
2007 Hong Kong Opening Concert
Awarded for 'The Most Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Contemporary Chinese Music' by the ISCM World Music Days 2002 Hong Kong. This year, ISCM~ACL World Music Days will be held in Hong Kong and HKCO is being invited to give the Opening Concert.
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Five festival openers to showcase the rise of Asian composers
Chow Fan Fu
Mankind's history of music is built upon the works of composers down the ages. The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra is an assiduous contributor to this monumental oeuvre. In its history of thirty years, it has commissioned close to 1,700 works, a staggering sum of new compositions as well as arrangements, by composers coming from not only Greater China but also the West. It stands to reason why when the ISCM World Music Days was held in Hong Kong five years ago, the International Society for Contemporary Music, as the most representative organisation for composers around the world, presented the HKCO with an award for 'The Most Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Contemporary Chinese Music' in recognition of its efforts.
This November sees this important event held in Hong Kong for the third time as the "ISCM-ACL World Music Days 2007 Hong Kong". The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra is armed with more missions than one: apart from the opening concert of the music festival, it is also going to give an ensemble performance at the Nan Lian Garden Xiang Hai Xuan in Wong Tai Sin, with elite members of the Orchestra performing under the baton of Assistant Conductor, Chew Hee-chiat. What is more, during the festival period, individual musicians from the Orchestra will give a demonstration on a particular Chinese instrument at the beginning of every symposium or concert. The series, entitled Gems of Traditional Chinese Music, will be held at seven venues, to a total of fourteen demonstration performances. The purpose is to introduce the characteristics of some of the most representative Chinese musical instruments to the delegates who have come from all over the world.
Highlights of the opening concert are five works by five composers which lend the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra a wonderful opportunity to show, with bravura and panache, its ability to interpret different types of regional music, all rich in exotic colour and striking in their new, contemporary styles. Among them, three are by Hong Kong composers, each distinguished by its unique features. Jing. Qi. Shen. by Chan Ming-chi is a work that incorporates the philosophies of Eastern Asia. It was selected as one of the 'Ten Recommended Pieces 2001' by the International Music Council of UNESCO. In the Days of the Travelling Tram by Joshua Chan, which is rich in exotic colour and unique acoustic figures, is a sublimation of memories of old Hong Kong. A Thousand Sweeps, written by Law Wing-fai for Wong Chi-ching, the famous pipa virtuoso and his long-term partner in music-making, and the HKCO, is a showpiece of pipa performing techniques. Law's inspiration came from watching a Chinese calligrapher executing the flamboyant style called 'cursive script', and he attempts to reinvent the fluidity of movements and the marvelous control over motion and stillness in his music.
The other two festival opening numbers are Madam Su-Ro and Beckoning the Phoenix. Madam Su-Ro, written by the Korean composer, Cecilia Hee-eong Kim, is performed on the Korean instrument janggo and its electronic cousin, the ‘super janggo’, with the support of the HKCO. The configuration is definitely one of its kind. A traditional folklore from the ancient 'Land of the Rising Sun' is thus told with drama and the most exotic colours. Beckoning the Phoenix by China composer Qin Wenchen uses the amazing timbre of the suona to tell another ancient tale, about a phoenix rising from the ashes and mankind’s eternal quest for the meaning of life and rebirths.
The five works by Asian composers selected for the opening concert demonstrate on the one hand the individual character and unique features of the composers and on the other, the spirit of contemporary Asian music culture. The opportunity allows them to share with fellow music-makers from all over the world the immense momentum behind the rise of the Asian powers in world music today.
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ISCM World Music Days 2002 Hong Kong
Mr Yan Huichang was translating the composers’ message to the audience with a great success and I hope he can give his knowledge to younger conductors.
Fons Willemsen
(Amsterdam)
This was the most exciting orchestral concert I have heard! The Orchestra played superbly, with enormous energy and sensitivity and Mr Yan Huichang is a most charismatic conductor. I hope to hear much of this wonderful music!
Christopher Fox
(Chairman, ISCM British Section)
Eine fur mich und meine Komponisten-Kollegen wunderschone Uberraschung! Insbesondere der singende Klang der Streicher hat mich uberwaltigt. Eine einmahig schones Erlebnis.
It was a wonderful and surprising concert to me and my colleague, who’s also a composer. The sound of the strings section is particularly stunning. A unique and beautiful experience.(English Translation)
Marcel Wengler
(President, ISCM Luxemburg)
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Know your Chinese
music
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Hong Kong and the International Society
for Contemporary Music (ISCM)
In September 1984, following a charter amendment, Hong Kong was able to become a National Section of The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), the third in Asia following Japan and South Korea. Four years later, Hong Kong played host to the 1988 ISCM World Music Days which was held in tandem with the Asian Composers League’s (ACL) conference and music festival. The world-class event was held in Hong Kong again in 2002. The ISCM-ACL World Music Days 2007 that runs from November 22 through December 1 would be the third time the event is being held in Hong Kong.
The ISCM was established in 1923 in Salzburg and has become one of the most influential international organisations for the promotion of contemporary music in the world. Affiliated to the UNESCO International Music Council, the current membership of ISCM includes 57 member countries. It was set up with the aim of crossing all boundaries – national, racial, religious and points of view – to promote all aspects of contemporary music, from composition to performance, discovery and showcasing of outstanding works. Its annual congress and music festival are the focus of the music world, enjoying a status that is tantamount to the Olympics. For the 2007 festival in Hong Kong, it is expected to draw more than 200 composers, musicologists and scholars from over sixty countries. A rich array of activities has been organized during the festival, including three days of symposia and 24 concerts featuring 150 works selected from a corpus of 600 from fifty regions. This mega event allows Hong Kong to serve yet again as a platform for music composition in the world, and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra to serve as a catalyst for East-West music exchange.
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Jing•Qi•Shen Chan Ming-chi
'Jing' ; 'Qi' ; 'Shen' was commissioned by the HKCO
and was premiered in February 1998. It was selected
as one of the 'Ten Recommended Pieces 2001' by the
International Music Council of UNESCO.
In the Days of the Travelling Tram Joshua Chan
Commissioned by the HKCO and was premiered in December 1998.
Pipa and Orchestra A Thousand Sweeps Law Wing-fai
Arrangement commissioned by the HKCO and was premiered
in the concert "Happy Together" for the ISPA in June 2006.
Pipa: Wong Chi-ching
Jang-go, Super Jang-go and Orchestra Madam Su-Ro
Cecilia Heejeong Kim
Commissioned by the HKCO and was premiered in November 2004.
Janggo Ensemble: wHOOL
Suona Concerto Beckoning the Phoenix Qin Wensen (Shortened version)
This version was Hong Kong premiered in April 2007 by the HKCO.
Suona: Guo Yazhi
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Ensemble Performance
24.11.2007(Sat) 3:00 pm
Nan Lian Garden Xiang Hai Xuan
Conductor : Chew Hee-chiat
Free seating. Admission free on a first-come-first
served basis.
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22.11.2007
Time : 8:00 pm
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Venue :
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall |
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$300, 200, 100
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Yan Huichang
Conductor |
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"Meticulous execution with a charming stage presence"
The Straits Times, Singapore
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"The group's charismatic conductor, Yan Huichang, directed the afternoon with sophisticated elan."
Bruce Hodges, MusicWeb International
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wHOOL Korean Drum
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The word 'wHOOL' means 'to empty out all thoughts – a purging of the spirit, and in essence to free the mind'. Founded in 2003 by Yoon Sang Choi, wHOOL now consists of six musicians. While the group started out primarily performing traditional Korean folk music, the multi-talents of its members have soon led it to cross over to other fields of entertainment and cultural projects. Now wHOOL has become synonymous with an 'almighty band' in Korea, having appeared in many prestigious festivals such as the Korea-Japan Intercultural Festival, Juksan Festival, Singapore Arts Festival and Poland Contact Festival. 'wHOOL' has also been active in film, drama, modern dance and theatre productions and won acclaim.
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Wong Chi-ching
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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.
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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.
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Guo Yazhi
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Guo Yazhi graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1990 and after graduation, stayed on at the Conservatory to teach. He joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra as Suona Principal in 1999. His invention of a removable reed for the suona, which gives the instrument chromatic capabilities and expands its range for expressiveness, won for him a Class Two Award for Technological Advancement by the Ministry of Culture in China. He has also used the improved version of the suona in premiering the modern works, Beckoning the Phoenix and Traces IV
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He participated in the International Pro Musicis Competition held in New York in 1998 and won the Grand Prize. It was described by the American Overseas Chinese Daily as "marking an important step towards the world stage for Chinese folk wind music." He has also performed with orchestras in Switzerland and Korea, and on the stages of scores of international music festivals in Europe and Southeast Asia. La Tribune de Geneve describes him as "a brilliant performing artist".
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Guo's discography includes Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix, Joyful Sounds - the Suona and The Silk Road Fantasia Suite.
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