HK Phil Releases Free CD,“Classics for Kids”
Also available for download

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[26 June 2015, Hong Kong] In the same week that the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is giving three mainstage subscription concerts in the Cultural Centre featuring a Hong Kong soloist Johnson Li, conducted by Lio Kuokman, the HK Phil is also releasing a free CD, “Classics for Kids”, featuring the Hong Kong conductor Perry So, with narration in Cantonese by Anthony Wong, and recorded by sound engineer Raymond Lo, also from Hong Kong.

The free CD is being made available to school children throughout Hong Kong, both in CD format and online.  The repertoire features three of the most famous compositions for school children: Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony. Programme notes are being made available on www.hkphil.org

The CD is sponsored by the Hong Kong company Clement Shield.

Perry So said: “The CD being released this week is a fine example of the HK Phil reaching out in a tangible way to the local community, offering a free recording of great music to school kids throughout the region, narrated and conducted by local artists.”

Clement Lai, Founder and CEO of Clement Shield, says, “Clement Shield cares more than physical security especially when it comes to kids. We believe firmly that protecting, and teaching our children well is securing and investing our own future. It's utterly exciting to see all these children faces appearing on the CD cover, we thank HK Phil for making the Children CD possible. We are so proud to be a part of this meaningful project.”

Distribution will start at the HK Phil’s Family Concert this coming Sunday 28 June.

About Perry So [www.perryso.com]

About Anthony Wong [on.fb.me/10cZfIL]

About Clement Shield [www.clementshield.com]

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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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