The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra Presented
Free Christmas Concert for NGOs and Charity Groups in Hong Kong
(24 December 2015)

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[24 December 2015, Hong Kong] As part of the Appreciate Hong Kong Campaign, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) proudly presented a special Christmas concert to community service recipients from more than 50 local NGOs and charity groups on 24 December 2015 at 11am in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Conducted by rising star Elim Chan andjoined by presenter Harry Wong and members of the Hong Kong Children’s Choir, the hall was filled with festive joy, music and laughter.

Harry Wong is one of Hong Kong’s favourite personalities, a well-known musician, magician and TV presenter. In the concert, Harry and his puppet friend Sa Sammy, made a special appearance telling stories on stage. In addition, a talented young magician and the children of some HK Phil players, who dressed up as little Santas, also shared the joy of Christmas with the audiences.

29-year-old Elim Chan is the first female winner of the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, and has been appointed Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for 2015/16. Conducting the HK Phil for the first time, Elim directed many Christmas favourites including Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, Philip Lane’s The Night Before Christmas and some sing-along carols.

Artists
Elim Chan, conductor [full biography]
Elim Chan is the first female winner of the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, which she won in December 2014. She is currently the Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Harry Wong, presenter [full biography]
Harry Wong is a well-known musician, prolific M.C. and TV presenter. He is popular among children and adults for his amazing magic. Harry has performed with the HK Phil, Hong Kong Dance Company, as well as the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.

Click the thumbnail to download photos
Conductor Elim Chan and Presenter Harry Wrong presented a very meaningful Christmas concert		Harry Wong and children of some HK Phil players who dressed up as little Santas
Harry and his puppet friend Sa Sammy		HK Phil and Hong Kong Children’s Choir to present classic Christmas songs		Harry Wong invited audience to participate in his magic tricks
HK Phil’s special Christmas concert benefited community service recipients from more than 50 local charity groups		Audiences enjoyed the performance very much

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