HK Phil Music Director Jaap van Zweden Conducts A Hero's Life
Featuring HK Phil Concertmaster Jing Wang (5 & 6 June)

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[7 May 2015, Hong Kong] The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) Music Director Jaap van Zweden returns to conduct Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), featuring HK Phil Concertmaster Jing Wang, on 5 & 6 June in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. 

Richard Strauss frequently promoted himself in his own music, and in this work he cast himself as the eponymous hero easily kicking aside those (notably music critics) who opposed him. Radiant passages for solo violin, featuring HK Phil Concertmaster Jing Wang, depict Strauss’s wife. 

Alongside Ein Heldenleben, the HK Phil performs music by Strauss’s own hero, Mozart. Mozart’s Symphony no. 40 is one of three composed in a phenomenal burst of creative activity just before his death and boasts one of the catchiest opening movements of any symphony.

Classics: Heroic! Strauss’ Ein Heldenlebenwill be held on 5 & 6 June 2015 (Fri & Sat), 8PM, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.Tickets priced: $580, $380, $220, $120 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.

Artists
Jaap van Zweden, conductor [full biography]
Amsterdam-born Jaap van Zweden is one of today’s most sought-after conductors. Named Musical America’s Conductor of the Year for 2012, he has been Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012/13 season.

The maestro has recently conducted the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony to high acclaims.

At the age of nineteen, Jaap was appointed as the youngest Concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Maestro van Zweden is also currently Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Honorary Conductor of the Radio Chamber Philharmonic.

Jing Wang, violin [full biography]
Before joining the HK Phil as the Concertmaster, Jing Wang served as the Concertmaster of Dallas Opera. He is the First Prize winner of Irving M. Klein International String Competition in 2007 and Concertino Praga in 2000. Jing Wang began playing violin at the age of three and made his first public appearance three years later in Marseille, France and his concerto debut aged nine with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, Canada. He took up the position of Concertmaster with the HK Phil in September 2013 at the invitation of Maestro Jaap van Zweden.

Classics: Heroic! Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben
5 & 6 | 6 | 2015
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$580 $380 $220 $120
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above

Click the thumbnail to download photos
Jaap van Zweden Photo Credit: Cheung Chi Wai	Jing Wang Photo Credit: Cheung Chi Wai	The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo credit: Cheung Chi Wai / 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 future 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.

This season is Jaap van Zweden’s third 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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