Star Singer-songwriter and Award-Winning Actress Ivana Wong Takes the Stage with the HK Phil (16 & 17 October)

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[11 August 2015, Hong Kong] The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is proud to present a collaboration with award-winning actress and singer-songwriterIvana Wong. On 16 & 17 October, we proudly present Ivana Wong at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in three concerts.These include her greatest hits, specially arranged for symphony orchestra, and a special celebration of her decade-long collaboration with renowned musician, producer and composer Alex Fung.

Ivana Wong was born into a musical family – both her parents are classical singers – and she herself plays classical piano and is very strongly influenced by classical music. As well as being a professional singer, Ivana has made a number of theatre and silver screen appearances which earned her the accolade “Best Newcomer” and “Best Supporting Actress” at the 34th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2015.

In a press conference earlier this year, Ivana said; “It was always my dream to play my own music with the top players in Hong Kong. While I’m much looking forward to the collaboration, it is also a big test for me and Alex Fung, who is the arranger and music director of most of my music, on how to blend the band sound and electronic elements in my music beautifully with the orchestral sound. The concert is called Fragrance of Music and hopefully all together we can stimulate senses of the audiences.”

Alex Fung has won numerous arranger and producer awards over the past decade. He is a well-known composer, arranger and producer, having produced over 400 songs with countless chart-topping hits.

Conducting the concert will be Gerard Salonga, a multi-award winning musical director, conductor and arranger. He has worked with some of Asia’s brightest musical artists including Lea Salonga, Wang Leehom, Hins Cheung and Elisa Chan.

Great chemistry and great music from the HK Phil, Gerard Salonga, Ivana and Alex Fung! Don’t miss it!

Holiday & Pops: Ivana Wong Fragrance of Music will be held on 16 & 17 October(Fri & Sat), 8PMand 17 October (Sat), 3PM, in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall.Tickets priced: HK$780, $480, $380, $280 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org.

17 Oct evening performance is sponsored by Pricerite.

Artists
Gerard Salonga, conductor [full biography]
Gerard Salonga is a multi-awarded musical director, conductor, and arranger. He has worked with some of Asia’s brightest musical artists, including Lea Salonga, Wang Leehom, Hins Cheung and Elisa Chan. He has won the Aliw Award (top live performance award of the Philippines) for Best Musical Director in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2008, and was inducted into the Aliw Hall of Fame in 2010. Currently Gerard is music director of the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra, a professional symphony orchestra maintained by Philippine broadcast giant ABS-CBN.

Ivana Wong [full biography]
Ivana Wong is Hong Kong’s foremost female singer-songwriter, acclaimed a “Star-quality Singer with a Celestial Voice” when she first joined the music industry in 2005. In subsequent years she has swept the board of Creative Singer Awards, four times Singer-Songwriter Gold Awards and for seven consecutive years she achieved Commercial Radio Singer-Songwriter Awards. Apart from being a professional singer, Ivana has made a number of appearances as a dramatic actress bringing her the accolade “Best Newcomer” and “Best Supporting Actress” at the 34th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2015.

Alex Fung [full biography]
Alex Fung is famous for his multi-talents as a performer, composer, arranger and producer, producing over 400 songs with countless chart-topping hits. Winning numerous awards including 903 Best Arranger of the Year for consecutive years, Producer of the Year in 2013. Also his debut solo album, Chapters, was named iTunes Album of the Year 2013. Alex has always been producing and arranging on almost every single album of Ivana, bringing out her utmost creativity and musicality.

Holiday & Pops: Ivana Wong Fragrance of Music
16 & 17 | 10 | 2015
FRI 8PM; SAT 3PM & 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$780 $480 $380 $280
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above

Click the thumbnail to download photos
Gerard Salonga	Ivana Wong	Alex Fung	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 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. 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.

This season is Jaap van Zweden’s fourth 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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