Leung Kin Fung, First Associate Concertmaster at the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, awarded the HKADC Artist of the Year (Music)

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[27 April 2015, Hong Kong] The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is proud to congratulate Mr Leung Kin Fung, the orchestra’s First Associate Concertmaster, on being awarded Artist of the Year (Music) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2014.

Leung Kin Fung is delighted to have received the award; “I believe it is the dream of every musician who grows up in Hong Kong to join the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, I realised that dream in 2000, and I am very proud to have a world class orchestra in the place where I grew up and live. Thank you HKADC for naming me the Artist of the Year. There are many hard-working musicians in Hong Kong who dedicate themselves selflessly to music and the arts, and, I would like to share this award with them. I would also like to thank the HK Phil, for nominating me, my parents for their love and nurture over the years, and my wife for her understanding and support.”

Mr Michael MacLeod, Chief Executive of the HK Phil, thanked Leung for his contribution to the HK Phil over the years; “Leung Kin Fung joined the HK Phil in 2000 and is now the First Associate Concertmaster of the orchestra. He leads the orchestra in certain performances as Concertmaster. He always performs outstandingly and professionally, and is enthusiastic in promoting the orchestra, musical exchange and music education. We are very proud that Leung Kin Fung was awarded the Artist of the Year. This is certainly a great recognition of our local musicians and is very encouraging and motivating to all of us.” He also thanked the HKADC for organising the awards.

Organised by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC), the Awards are an annual flagship event which aim to give formal recognition to distinguished arts practitioners who have achieved excellence and made significant contributions to the development of the arts in Hong Kong.

The award presentation ceremony was held on 24 April in the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

About Leung Kin Fung, First Associate Concertmaster
Leung Kin Fung was a recipient of the “Ten Outstanding Young Persons Awards” by the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong in 2002. He was the first Hong Kong musician to win the first prize at the “1992 Young Artist Competition” in New York while studying on a full scholarship at the Juilliard School as the winner of the “Irving Ruckens Award”. He also had previously won a significant award for his virtuosity on the viola, the second prize at “The 19th William Primrose International Viola Competition” in 1991. Other awards include the “Mary Owen Borden Memorial Foundation Award” in 1990, the “Grand Prize of the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival” and the “Hong Kong Commercial Radio Prize” in 1986. He was listed in “Who’s Who in the HKSAR” published by Sing Tao Publishing Ltd in 2004. He was commended for making outstanding achievements in the promotion of arts and culture, under the Secretary for Home Affairs’ Commendation Scheme 2005, Hong Kong.

Leung enjoys a world-class reputation, as demonstrated by his frequent worldwide performances, as well as regular concerto performances with orchestras. Leung has represented Hong Kong in many international music events. Serving as a cultural ambassador, Leung was nominated to represent Taiwan to join the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra at the anniversary celebrations of the ascension of the King of Thailand from 1994 to 1996. Besides the invitations by the Taiwan Straits Foundation to tour Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for cultural exchange and performances in 1996, he was invited to perform on a tour of a number of cities on the West Coast of the USA in 1997. In 1999, he was selected by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in the USA to present a recital at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., as well as to perform the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto there with the Sino-America Music Foundation Symphony Orchestra. Leung has been invited each year beginning with the 2000 season to represent Hong Kong in the Super World Orchestra held in Tokyo, which is comprised of concertmasters and principals from the world’s leading orchestras. Leung was invited as the guest concertmaster for the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in Germany, and the Macau Symphony Orchestra in Macau, 2006.

Full Biography of Leung Kin Fung

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(1) Leung Kin Fung, First Associate Concertmaster of the orchestra, receives the Artist of the Year Award (Music) from renowned soprano Ms Barbara Fei
 

(2) Leung Kin Fung gives his speech
 

(3) Group photo of all Awardees and Guests at the Award Presentation Ceremony (Photo provided by Hong Kong Arts Development Council HKADC)

 

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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