BBC Frozen Planet in Concert – A Cinematic Journey with Live Music
Presented by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (3 & 4 June)

Download HERE

[20 April 2016, Hong Kong] Following the success of Planet Earth in Concert last year, BBC Frozen Planet in Concert comes to the big screen of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil). Travel with conductor Benjamin Northey and the HK Phil to the ends of the earth on an extraordinary cinematic journey across the Arctic and Antarctic to witness the extreme conditions, incredible beauty, and mystical creatures of the polar regions. And of course, audiences will love the playful polar bears, lovable penguins and magnificent whales too!

“As ‘Frozen Planet in Concert’ proves, nature film has become poetry in motion, buoyed and transported not so much by words as music.”
--- LA Times

Composer George Fenton is one of the most successful composers in the UK and is best known for his works in film and television. Winner of Ivor Novello, BAFTA and Emmy Awards, Fenton has written scores for over 100 films and has collaborated with some of the most influential filmmakers. Frozen Planet in Concert is a unique presentation of film sequences taken from the BBC Television programmes, accompanied live by an orchestra. The show continues to be presented around the world to entertain and thrill audiences from all walks of life – a journey one can never experience from the television.

Holiday & Pops: BBC Frozen Planet in Concert will be held on 3 & 4 June(Fri & Sat), 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Ticket prices: HK$480, HK$380, $280, $180 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.

Artists
Benjamin Northey, conductor [full biography]
Benjamin Northey has rapidly emerged as one of Australia’s leading musical figures. He has held the position of Associate Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2011, and in 2015 became Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. He has made his mark through many critically acclaimed appearances with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the New Zealand Symphony and the Southbank Sinfonia of London.

Holiday & Pops: BBC Frozen Planet in Concert
3 & 4 | 6 | 2016
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$480 $380 $280 $180
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above

Artists

Click the thumbnail to download photos
Benjamin Northey	The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Philip Chau/HK Phil

Programme

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director: Jaap van Zweden
Principal Guest Conductor: Yu Long

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is recognised as Asia’s foremost classical orchestra. The Orchestra presents more than 150 concerts over a 44-week season and attracts more than 200,000 music lovers annually.

Jaap van Zweden, one of today’s most sought-after conductors, is the Orchestra’s Music Director, a position he has held since the 2012/13 concert season. Maestro van Zweden was recently announced as the next Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. This appointment will not affect his tenure with the HK Phil; his commitment to the HK Phil extends at least to the summer of 2019.

Yu Long was appointed for an initial three-year term in the 2015/16 season as Principal Guest Conductor.

Under Maestro van Zweden, the HK Phil is undertaking a variety of initiatives including a four-year project to perform and record the complete Ring of the Nibelung (Richard Wagner). The Orchestra is in the second of this four-year journey, performing one opera annually in concert. The performances are being recorded live for the Naxos label and mark the first performances by a Hong Kong or mainland Chinese orchestra of the entire Ring cycle.

Also under van Zweden, the orchestra undertook a highly successful five-country, seven-city tour of Europe in the 2014/15 season, with concerts in London, Vienna, Zurich, Eindhoven, Birmingham, Berlin and Amsterdam. Performances were met with enthusiasm and universally positive reviews. The concert in Vienna’s Musikverein was filmed for broadcast on TV.

Conductors and soloists who have recently performed with the orchestra include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ning Feng, Matthias Goerne, Lang Lang, Yu Long, Yundi Li, the late Lorin Maazel, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuja Wang.

The HK Phil promotes the work of Hong Kong and Chinese composers through an active commissioning programme, and has released recordings featuring Tan Dun and Bright Sheng, each conducting their own compositions, on the Naxos label. Its acclaimed community engagement programme brings music to tens of thousands of children annually. A recording was issued free to schoolchildren throughout Hong Kong of Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony.

The Swire Group has been the Principal Patron of the HK Phil since 2006. Through this sponsorship, which is the largest in the orchestra’s history, Swire also endeavours to promote artistic excellence, foster access to classical music and stimulate cultural participation in Hong Kong, and to enhance Hong Kong’s reputation as one of the great cities of the world.

Thanks to a significant subsidy from the Hong Kong Government and long-term funding from Principal Patron Swire, the Hong Kong Jockey Club and other supporters, the HK Phil now boasts a full-time annual schedule of classical music concerts, pops concerts, an extensive education programme, and collaborations for staged opera with Opera Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

The Orchestra’s history stretches back to 1895, when it was formed as the Sino-British Orchestra. It was re-named in 1957 and became fully professional in 1974.

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
SWIRE is the Principal Patron of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra is a Venue Partner of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.