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Activities
Orchestras and Ensembles Academy Symphony Orchestra All orchestral instrument students participate in the Academy Symphony Orchestra. Weekly rehearsals cover standard symphonic literature as well as modern works. The Orchestra has performed under the batons of Sir Neville Marriner, Georg Tintner, Trevor Pinnock, Takuo Yuasa, Christoph Campestrini, Joseph Silverstein, and Francois-Xavier Roth; and has worked with famous soloists including Nigel Kennedy (violin), Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), Robert Holl (bass baritone), Andrew Marriner (clarinet), Guy Barker (trumpet), Paul Badura-Skoda (piano) and Malcolm Bilson (fortepiano). The Orchestra has been invited to perform in Austria, France, Spain, UK, Vietnam and Thailand. It was the resident orchestra at the Carinthia Summer Festival in Austria from 1999 to 2001, and its concerts have received much critical acclaim. Academy Chinese Orchestra Chinese Music students take part in the Academy Chinese Orchestra as well as in various ensembles such as the Zheng Ensemble, Silk and Bamboo ensemble, plucked strings ensemble, and Chinese Percussion Ensemble. Regular concerts include various solo, concerto, ensemble and Chinese orchestral performances featuring a wide repertoire of traditional classical pieces, folk music, new compositions and works specifically commissioned by the Department for the Orchestra. Students have worked with distinguished composers and conductors such as Gu Guan-ren, Zhou Cheng-long, Kuan Nai-chung, Liu Wen-jin and Zhu Chang-yao. The Orchestra and various ensembles play a significant role in promoting Chinese music both locally and overseas. Students have toured UK, United States and Canada, Austria, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan and New Zealand. Academy Choir The Academy Choir has performed with outstanding success under choirmasters Gordon Kember, Michael Rippon, Raymond Fu, Lazlo Heltay, Jeanette Gallant, Nina Yip, Lam Ho-chi and Timmy Tsang. It has presented major works such as Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (this together with the choir of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under Sir Neville Marriner), Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for RTHK Radio Four, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Faure's Requiem and Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Academy Symphony Orchestra. Academy Concert Band The Academy Concert Band provides opportunities for the woodwind, brass and percussion students to participate in the wind band tradition. It performs a wide variety of repertoire that includes classical, contemporary and popular music. Highlights of recent concerts include a performance of Heinrich Hubler's Concerto for Four Horns with the Vienna Horn Ensemble, and a concert of music by Alfred Reed conducted by the composer himself and featuring the Hong Kong premiere of his new Trumpet Concerto played by the renowned Taiwanese trumpeter Yeh Shu-han. Contemporary Music Ensemble The Contemporary Music Ensemble provides opportunities for performers to become familiar with the music of major contemporary composers as well as for performers and composers to work together in exploring new instrumental techniques. There are concerts by the ensemble each year to highlight various musical styles and genres of contemporary works. Chamber Music Groups The School of Music runs an extensive chamber music programme for Western Music students. Chamber music groups include piano and string trios, string quartets, wind quintets and octets, piano duos, guitar ensembles, percussion ensembles as well as groups comprising different combinations of instruments. Students are assigned to groups or form their own, and are coached by faculty staff and visiting artists including the Miami String Quartet, the Sydney String Quartet, the Cleveland Quartet, and members of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Academy Brass Ensemble The Academy Brass Ensemble gives students the opportunity to play a wide variety of brass ensemble music, ranging from Renaissance music to modern works, and including large-scale arrangements, sometimes involving percussion as well. The Ensemble has performed with well-known artists around the world including the American Horn Quartet and Peter Harvey. Highlights of recent concerts include a performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition arranged by Elgar Howarth and conducted by Roger Harvey. Academy Jazz Ensemble The Academy Jazz Ensemble introduces students to the creative challenge of improvisation in the major jazz styles. The Ensemble performs around four times during the year in different venues within the Academy, and is often featured in community outreach concerts at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Performances Academy Concerts The School of Music organises around 300 performances each year. About 200 of these are programmed within the Academy and the rest in Hong Kong and various overseas venues. Many of the Academy concerts are open to the general public free of charge. Below are some of performances which regularly take place in the Academy:
Interdisciplinary Productions Examples of other cross-disciplinary collaboration include the musical Fiddler on the Roof (2003), dance production Body Torque (2005) in which the Symphony Orchestra played Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos and John Adams' Shaker Loops. These co-presentations were made successful from the joint efforts of the Schools of Music, Dance, Drama and Technical Arts. Outreach Concerts
Academy Lecture Series The Academic Studies Department sponsors an Academy Lecture Series each year. Six to eight speakers are invited to give lectures on topics in both Western and Chinese music. Lectures are open to the public, and speakers include visiting academics, music scholars from local universities, and the School's own academic staff. Below is a selection of lectures held in 2005-2006:
Overseas Tours and Performances School of Music students often act as cultural ambassadors for Hong Kong. Both Chinese and Western music ensembles have given performances abroad in 17 countries in four continents. In July 1999 the Academy Symphony Orchestra went on its first European Tour, playing in the Carinthia Summer Festival in Austria, the Pablo Casals Festival in France, and concerts in Spain and UK. The series of concerts in Carinthia was voted the Best Event of the Decade, and the Orchestra was invited back to be the resident orchestra for the Carinthia Summer Festival 2000 and 2001. The Chinese Music Ensemble has been regularly invited by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in Brussels and London to perform in European Countries. Since 2002, they have been to Belgium, France, England, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary to perform to enthusiastic audiences who listened to Chinese music for the first time. A student string quartet performed at Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Bangkok in Thailand during Easter 2005. In Bangkok, the King's sister was amongst the audience in this special charity concert for Tsunami victims. Major projects in 2004-2006 Two concerts were presented in October 2004 with renowned Baroque and Classical music specialist Trevor Pinnock, who conducted the overture to Nozze di Figaro and two Mozart symphonies ¡V the 29th and 41st, and gave a stunning harpsichord recital. There were two other major orchestra projects with Francois-Xavier Roth in December 2004 to conduct a concert of French music: Jean-Louis Agobet's Folia, the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony and the Poulenc concerto for two pianos, returning again in May 2005 he conducted the Poulenc concerto for the Academy Dance production Troppo Allegro and John Adams' Shaker Loops for the new territories. He was invited back again in March 2006 to conduct the opera Serse by Handel, and for a recording project with the Academy Symphony Orchestra. Edo de Waart strengthened the links between the School and professional music in Hong Kong by combining the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HKPO) and the Academy Symphony Orchestra for a joint concert of "The World of John Adams" at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in April 2005. Following the success of this collaboration, a second concert took place in February 2006. Conducted by Edo de Waart again, the combined orchestra played Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, Elgar's Cello Concerto with Academy student Xiong Yin as soloist, and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Mahler's Fifth Symphony has already been scheduled to perform in January 2007 to continue the joint effort. In June 2005 and 2006 respectively the School had a series of very successful Concerto Winners Concerts. French conductor Patrick Souillot from University Symphonic Orchestra in Grenoble, and Japanese conductor Takuo Yuasa who conducted many major international orchestras, both directed three concerts in which students soloists of Western and Chinese music majors demonstrated their virtuosic abilities, and brought the curtain down on the academic years. |
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The School of Music receives invitations from both various organisations and individuals for students to be engaged in various kinds of performances which are of educational or non-profit making basis. Performance highlights outside the Academy included a Young Music Makers series for Radio Television Hong Kong, concerts at Government House , resident orchestra for the Vienna Opera Ball, foyer concerts at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and most recently, a series of nine educational concerts held at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Theatre attended by about 720 primary school students. 
