Change of Artist – Xinru Zhang to Replace Chenchu Rong in HK Phil's Season Opening Concerts (4 & 5 September)
Concert Programme Will Remain Unchanged

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[18 August 2015, Hong Kong] Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) announces that metal percussionist Chenchu Rong has had to withdraw from her advertised performances of Tan Dun’s Nu Shu for health reasons. In her place we are delighted to welcome Xinru Zhang, winner of the 2nd International Percussion Competition for Young Soloists held in Greece. The advertised programme remains unchanged.

Masterworks: Season Opening – Tan Dun’s Nu Shu will be held on 4 & 5 September 2015 (Fri & Sat), 8PM, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.Tickets priced: HK$580, $480, $380, $280 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.

Artists
Tan Dun, conductor [full biography]
Tan Dun is the winner of the most prestigious honours including the Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Musical America’s Composer of The Year and Moscow’s Shostakovich Award etc. He has led the world’s most esteemed orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestre national de France and BBC Symphony Orchestra etc.

Elizabeth Hainen, harp [full biography]
Elizabeth Hainen has been the solo harpist for the Philadelphia Orchestra for over 19 years, she also appeared as a featured soloist with the City of London Sinfonia, Kennedy Center Orchestra and the Vienna Boys Choir. She has collaborated with eminent conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos etc.

*Xinru Zhang, metal percussion [full biography]
Xinru Zhang is the winner of the 2nd International Percussion Competition for Young Soloists held in Greece and is one of China’s rising percussion stars. She has been awarded numerous prizes at home and abroad, including the Gold Prize at the International Chinese Percussion Arts Festival, top prizes in the National Youth Percussion Competition, International Chinese Marimba Competition and National Drumming Competition.

Zeyu Victor Li, violin [full biography]
Zeyu Li won numerous competitions including the 9th China National Violin Competition, 2013 New York Young Concert Artist, and the 19th Schadt International Violin Competition etc. He performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic etc.

Masterworks: Season Opening – Tan Dun’s Nu Shu
4 & 5 | 9 | 2015
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$580 $480 $380 $280
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above

Click the thumbnail to download photos
Tan Dun	Elizabeth Hainen Photo Credit: Amanda Stevenson	*Xinru Zhang
Zeyu Victor Li	Tan Dun’s Nu Shu	The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Philip Chau/HK Phil

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director: Jaap van Zweden

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) has recently returned from an extremely successful five-country, seven-city tour of Europe, with concerts in London, Vienna, Zurich, Eindhoven, Birmingham, Berlin and Amsterdam. Most concerts were sold out, there were standing ovations, and the reviews were universally positive. The concert in Vienna’s Musikverein was filmed for broadcast on TV. With a history stretching back to 1895, when it was formed as the Sino-British Orchestra, the HK Phil was re-named in 1957 and became fully professional in 1974.

Thanks to 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.

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, Yuja Wang and Edo de Waart, the HK Phil’s previous Music Director.

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 ten 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.

This season is Jaap van Zweden’s fourth as Music Director of the HK Phil. With him, the orchestra is undertaking major expansion and new projects, including the first-ever performances by a Hong Kong or mainland Chinese orchestra of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung. The four operas are being performed, one a year, in concert and recorded live for the Naxos label.

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.

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

 

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