Tango with Piazzolla

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[31 March 2017, Hong Kong] Buenos Aires comes to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on 12 & 13 May. The iconic dance of the sultry Argentinean night clubs is brought to life here as the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is joined by tango dancers moving to Astor Piazzolla’s sensuous “new tango”. Princess of the accordion, Ksenija Sidorova, will also perform Piazzolla’s pulsating Bandoneón Concerto.

The Bandoneón is an instrument closely associated with the tango, and features prominently in Piazzolla’s music. The concerts will perform one of the two concertos he wrote for the instrument and was given the nickname “Aconcagua” after the highest mountain peak in the Andes because it is said to be the highest peak in Piazzolla’s music. It features Latvian star Bandoneón player Ksenija Sidorova, who has been praised “superbly subtle and virtuosic” (The Arts Desk).

Piazzolla wrote several hundred works, nearly all of which are tangos, arrangements of tangos or based on tangos. Not for nothing he is described today as “King of Tango”. This concert features not only tango music by Piazzolla, but true tangos danced by Eliana Sanchez Arteaga and Guillermo Salvat.

The concerts run for approximately 1 hour without interval.

Swire Denim Series: Tango with Piazzollawill be held on 12 & 13 May (Fri & Sat) at 8PMin the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Ticket prices: HK$380, $280, $180, $120 are now available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit www.hkphil.org

Artists
Gerard Salonga, conductor [full biography]
Gerard Salonga is 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, Elisa Chan and Wu Tong. He has won the Aliw Award (the Philippines’ top live performance award) for Best Musical Director four times, and was inducted into the Aliw Hall of Fame in 2010. Gerard was honoured by the President of the Philippines in 2012 as one of The Outstanding Young Men, the Philippines’ highest civilian award to achievers under the age of 40.

Ksenija Sidorova, accordion[full biography]
Praised as “superbly subtle and virtuosic” (The Arts Desk) and “an amazingly accomplished artist” (Classical Source), Ksenija Sidorova is the leading ambassador for the accordion. Encouraged to take up the instrument by a grandmother steeped in the folk tradition of accordion playing, Ksenija started to play the instrument when she was eight under the guidance of Marija Gasele in her hometown of Riga. Her quest for more exposure to both classical and contemporary repertoire took her to London where she became a prize-winning undergraduate at the Royal Academy of Music.

WIRE DENIM SERIES: TANGO WITH PIAZZOLLA
12 & 13 | 5 | 2017
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$380 $280 $180 $120
Tickets are now available at URBTIX
For ages 6 and above

Artist

Programme

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 for an initial three-year term in the 2015/16 season as Principal Guest Conductor.

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 will undertake 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, the late Lorin Maazel, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuja Wang.

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 celebrated its 40th season as a professional orchestra in 2013/14.


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.