WANTED!
Hong Kong Candidates for Orchestra Assistant Conductor

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[3 March 2016, Hong Kong]  The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is inviting talented individuals from Hong Kong and around the world to apply for the coveted position of Assistant Conductor.

The HK Phil is a world-class orchestra that presents more than 150 concerts over a 44-week season, both at home and on tour. The orchestra is led by the internationally renowned Jaap van Zweden, Music Director of the HK Phil since the 2012/13 season. The Assistant Conductor position, which involves working with the orchestra’s guest conductors, rehearsing and conducting, is a rare opportunity for emerging conductors to work with a major orchestra.

HK Phil’s position of Assistant Conductor has been vacant since the 2012/13 season. The Orchestra is now actively seeking to fill it and has announced the search internationally and locally. The ideal candidate will be fluent in Cantonese and English.

“We are calling for emerging conductors, especially from within our own local talents from Hong Kong, to step forward for this position. Amongst the applications we have received so far, none are from Hong Kong. It is very important to us to attract local applicants and we are working hard to do so,” said Raff Wilson, Director of Artistic Planning of the HK Phil.

The deadline for applications has been extended to 18 March. Applicants must be available for interviews and to conduct the orchestra on 13 June 2016. Further details may be found at http://bit.ly/1QtgoUY
 

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The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Jaap van Zweden Photo Credit: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

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 over 150 concerts within a 44-week season and attracts more than 200,000 music lovers annually.

Jaap van Zweden, one of today’s most sought-after conductors, is the Orchestra’s Music Director, a position he has held since the 2012/13 concert season. Maestro van Zweden was recently announced as the next Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. This appointment will not affect his tenure with the HK Phil; his commitment to the HK Phil extends at least to the summer of 2019.

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 year two of this four-year journey, performing one opera each year in concert. The performances are being recorded live for the Naxos label and mark the first performances by a Hong Kong or mainland Chinese orchestra of the entire Ring cycle.

Also under van Zweden, the orchestra undertook a highly successful five-country, seven-city tour of Europe in the 2014/15 season, with concerts in London, Vienna, Zurich, Eindhoven, Birmingham, Berlin and Amsterdam. Performances were met with enthusiasm and universally positive reviews. The concert in Vienna’s Musikverein was filmed for broadcast on TV.

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 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’s history stretches back to 1895, when it was formed as the Sino-British Orchestra. It was re-named in 1957 and became fully professional in 1974.

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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