HK Phil’s Music for Kids Concert – The Magic Toyshop (22 & 23 Sep)
Featuring The Puppet and Its Double Theater from Taiwan
8 AUG 2017
Hong Kong
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Meggy Cheng
Director of Marketing
Tel: (852) 2721 9035
Email: meggy.cheng@hkphil.org
Becky Lee
Media Relations Manager
Tel: (852) 2721 1585
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[8 August 2017, Hong Kong] Dancing dolls in a magic toy store! The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s (HK Phil) Assistant Conductor Vivian Ip conjures up fantasy and fun with her baton, while The Puppet and Its Double Theater from Taiwan tells the story of the Bold Umbrellaphant. Experience an innovative and fun-filled concert in which puppetry, mini-theatre and magical orchestral music tell fascinating stories and set us all off on the wings of imagination, two performances only on 22 & 23 September in the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium.
The setup of the puppet with real life projection on screen along with the orchestra will reveal the story of La Boutique Fantasque in which two can-can dancer dolls are bought by two families - one American, the other Russian. The thought of being parted from each other makes them very sad so they plan to run away with the rest of the toys. Respighi wrote this ballet music based on piano pieces by Rossini.
Lucas Richman, a Grammy®-winning conductor who has worked with numerous major film composers is also an accomplished composer and his works written specifically for children have been featured in young people’s concerts presented by orchestras throughout the United States. His Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant is based on a children’s book by Children’s poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky. Presented with puppets and projection, The Puppet and Its Double Theater will recreate the adventures of the umbrellaphant in the poem “Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant”. Here, Prelutsky imagines an elephant who turns his trunk into an umbrella to protect him from any weather.
Also in the concert will be the first movement of Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony, scored string orchestra but with solo roles for such diverse musical instruments as a toy trumpet, a toy drum, a rattle, a cuckoo whistle, a quail and a nightingale. These toy instruments have made this a fun piece for children. There will also be the March from Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges inspired by the fairy tales of the 18th-century Italian writer Carlo Gozzi.
Music for Kids Series: The Magic Toyshop will be held on 22 & 23 September 2017 (Fri & Sat), 8PM, in the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium.Tickets priced: HK$320, $280, $180, $120 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.
Artists
Vivian Ip, conductor [full biography]
Vivian Ip is a native of Hong Kong. A graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music with first class honours. She later obtained a Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting at the Indiana University Bloomington and a Master of Arts Degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. As an orchestral conductor, Vivian has worked and performed in Hong Kong and Europe with, among others, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with world-class conductors including Riccardo Muti, Simon Rattle and Riccardo Chailly.
The Puppet & Its Double Theater (Taiwan) [full biography]
The Puppet and Its Double Theater was founded in 1999 in Taipei, and is made up of a group of enthusiastic puppet artists who promote the puppet as a tool for freely expressing the performing arts. The company creates an abundance of work that exhibits the visual media with a rich and infinite imagination, and they find new ways to interact with audiences of all ages. The company has earned an international reputation for the cultivation of contemporary puppet arts around the world. Through its continual efforts in creating new productions, educational promotions and international exchange, The Puppet and Its Double Theater hopes to elevate their audience’s creativity and pursue the dream of innovation in puppetry, exposing the dynamic and rich possibilities of the puppet arts to Taiwan and the world.
MUSIC FOR KIDS SERIES: THE MAGIC TOYSHOP
22 & 23 | 9 | 2017
FRI & SAT 8PM
Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium
HK$320 $280 $180 $120
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 3 and above
Artists
| Vivian Ip | conductor |
| The Puppet & Its Double Theater (Taiwan) | |
Click the thumbnails to download press photos
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| Vivian Ip Photo Credit: Marianne Feiler | The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Photo Credit: Cheung Chi Wai/HK Phil |
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| La Boutique fantasque by The Puppet and Its Double Theater | Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by The Puppet and Its Double Theater |
Programme
| L. MOZART | Toy Symphony, 1st Movement |
| ROSSINI-RESPIGHI | La Boutique fantasque |
| PROKOFIEV | The Love for Three Oranges: March |
| RICHMAN | Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant |
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, has been the orchestra’s Music Director since the 2012/13 concert season, a position he will continue to hold until at least 2022. In addition, Maestro van Zweden will also be the next Music Director of the New York Philharmonic starting with the 2018/19 season.
Yu Long was appointed Principal Guest Conductor with the HK Phil for a three-year period commencing with the 2015/16 season.
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 third of this four-year journey, performing one opera annually in concert. The performances being recorded live for the Naxos label are winning rave reviews internationally; and mark the first performances by a Hong Kong or mainland Chinese orchestra of the entire Ring cycle.
Also under van Zweden, the orchestra has toured to Taiwan, Europe and Mainland China. The orchestra just completed an ambitious five-city tour to Seoul, Osaka, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney in April and May 2017 in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR.
Conductors and soloists who have recently performed with the orchestra include Yo-Yo Ma, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Ning Feng, Matthias Goerne, Lang Lang, Yu Long, Yundi Li, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yuja Wang and the late Lorin Maazel.
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 was originally called the Sino-British Orchestra. It was renamed as the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 1957 and became fully professional in 1974.
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.