Charlie Chaplin Classic Movie Gold Rush accompanied live by HK Phil
9PM Concerts designed for busy urbanites (13 & 14 May)

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[30 March 2016, Hong Kong] Good music and silent movies are made for each other – one can’t work without the other. The Swire Denim Series: Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush presented by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) at 9PM will provide busy urbanites with the perfect combination of Academy Award-nominated Best Music live alongside the screening of a classic silent movie, combined with an opportunity to mix and mingle with the musicians following the concert.

In this 1925 silent movie which he wrote, produced, directed and composed the music, Chaplin plays the beloved tramp, this time chasing his fortune in snowbound gold country. Lost in a snow storm, Tramp and another gold prospector, Big Jim McKay, find themselves trapped in the house of a wanted criminal called Larsen. Short of food, the starving tramp boils and eats his own leather boot! Later, he falls in love with the beautiful Georgia and tries to win her heart.

Conductor Frank Strobel is an expert in conducting the original music for silent film classics. He will lead the HK Phil in 90 minutes of pure enjoyment for everyone – a feast for the ears and the eyes, with plenty of good laughs along the way.

After the concert, mingle with our musicians in Deli & Wine at the post-concert party. Party tickets are sold in the foyer at our concert at $80, first-come, first-served.

Swire Denim Series: Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush will be held on 13 & 14 May(Fri & Sat), 9PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Ticket prices: HK$380, $280, $220, $180 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.

Free Pre-concert talks are available on both concert nights, stay tuned for details at www.hkphil.org

Swire Sunday Family: Chaplin for Kids! will feature the same programme but with interactive activities before and after the concert for young audiences and the whole family on Sunday, 15 Mayat 3PM. Please visit www.hkphil.org for more details.

Partner: Chevignon

Artists
Frank Strobel, conductor [full biography]
With his musicianship, versatility, technical expertise and dedication, Frank Strobel has established himself as one of the most multi-faceted conductors of his generation. With world premières and reproductions of works by composers including Sergei Prokofiev, Alfred Schnittke, Frank Schreker and Siegfried Wagner, from which many recordings emerged, he opens up new insights into the world of film music. He also has taken silent movies into opera houses and concert halls to great critical acclaim. Additionally, he is admired for his conducting of the Classical and Romantic concert repertory as well as of the 20th century.

Swire Denim Series: Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush
13 & 14 | 5 | 2016
&SAT 9PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$380 $280 $220 $180
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above

Swire Sunday Family Series: Chaplin for Kids!
15 | 5 | 2016
SUN 3PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$280 $180 $120 $90
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 3 and above

Artists

Click the thumbnail to download photos
Frank Strobel Photo Credit: Thomas Rabsch	The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Jason Ma/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.

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