HW Pick: Manhattan Hong Kong Music Festival

The Manhattan Hong Kong Music Festival, co-presented by Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC) and Manhattan School of Music (MSM), will be held in New York City from October 30 to November 3, 2012. 

The week-long festival offers a rare opportunity for Hong Kong’s finest musicians to perform side-by-side with top New York musicians and students, including MSM Faculty, the MSM Symphony, and Tactus, MSM’s acclaimed contemporary ensemble.

The meticulously curated festival concerts and activities, including several New York & World Premieres, reflect the diversity and vitality of Hong Kong while facilitating a first-of-its-kind musical cultural exchange between Hong Kong and New York City. Acclaimed conductor Johnny M. Poon, serving as the artistic composer of the festival, crafted a program that fuses eastern and western traditions, mixed with avant-garde auditory performances, into an experience that spans cultures and generations. Poon also highlights Hong Kong’s 15th anniversary as a Special Administrative Region by featuring musicians with cultural ties in both the East and the West.

Highlights of the program include:
•    Multimedia artist cum composer Samson Young’s award-winning I Am Thinking in a Room, Different from the One You Are Hearing in Now, a one-of-a-kind sound performance at Lincoln Center in which the artist’s brainwaves and concentration combine to produce a distinct auditory performance.
•    Cutting Edge in Hong Kong features MSM’s acclaimed Tactus ensemble performing a series of New York & World Premieres of the works of some of Hong Kong’s most exciting composers of different generations
•    Featuring works by five of the most influential Chinese-American composers living in the West, Chinoiserie Moderne: Beyond Exoticism at Carnegie Hall is intended as a consideration of the new context in which modern Chinese composers chart their own artistic paths. Renowned soprano Ms. Barbara Fei will make a special appearance.

All events are FREE unless otherwise noted.
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For Media Inquiries, please contact:
Emily Kutner, BLJ Worldwide, EmilyK@bljworldwide.com; +1-212-486-7070
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Tuesday, October 30, 2012
1:00 PM | I Am Thinking in a Room, Different From the One You Are Hearing in Now
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (62nd Street & Broadway)
Samson Young (Homage to Alvin Lucier)
Video installation/sound performance

7:30 PM | Hong Kong in Recital
Greenfield Hall at Manhattan School of Music (122nd & Broadway)
Warren Lee, Mary Wu and Nina Yip, Piano
Chuan-yun Li, Violin
Andrew Ling, Viola and Violin
Richard Bamping, Cello
Pius Cheung, Marimba

Featuring
KREISLER Tambourin Chinois op. 3
LI ZI-LI Harvest Song of the Fisherman
CHEN GANG Sunshine on Tashkurgan
BRAHMS Trio for Viola, Cello and Piano, op. 114
PIUS CHEUNG Etudes in C Minor, C-sharp Minor and E Major
ARLEN Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Semi-improvised version)
RAVEL Piano Trio in A Minor

Wednesday, October 31, 2012
4:00 PM | Master Class
Miller Recital Hall at Manhattan School of Music
Pius Cheung, Marimba

7:30 PM | Cutting Edge in Hong Kong
Greenfield Hall at Manhattan School of Music
Featuring Tactus
Jeffrey Milarsky, Conductor

An evening of original compositions by some of Hong Kong’s most exciting composers
Featuring
WING WAH CHAN Into Immensity
VICTOR CHAN Music For Flute, Bass Clarinet and Piano
JOYCE TANG Quicksilver Swirls
CHEUNG WAI HUI Cage Moved East 20 Grins (Garbage Garden)
RICHARD TSANG Lotus Fantasy
FUNG LAM Remembering Dowland
DESMOND CHEN Stars and Moon, Cloud and You

Thursday, November 1, 2012
3:00 PM | Composition Forum
Miller Recital Hall at Manhattan School of Music

7:30 PM | Manhattan/Hong Kong Chamber Music
Greenfield Hall at Manhattan School of Music
Daniel Epstein, Warren Lee, Nancy Loo and Mary Wu, Piano
Laurie Carney and Peter Winograd, Violin
Andrew Ling and Nicholas Mann, Viola
Richard Bamping and David Gerber, Cello

An HK-MSM collaborative concert of piano chamber music
Featuring
INFANTE Danses andalouses
FAURÉ Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, op. 15
Traditional (arr. DOMING LAM) Moonlight Over the Spring River
SCHUMANN Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, op. 44

Friday, November 2, 2012
7:30 PM | Gala Orchestra Concert
Borden Auditorium at Manhattan School of Music
TICKETS: $20 adults, $12 seniors and students
MSM Symphony
Johnny M. Poon, Conductor
Chuan-yun Li, Violin
Yuki Ip, Soprano
Chen Gang and He Zhanhao The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto

MOZART Symphony No 35 in D Major, K. 385 (“Haffner”)
MOZART Ruhe sanfit, mein holdes Leben (from Zaïde)
STRAVINSKY No Word from Tom (from Rake’s Progress)
FUNG LAM Illumination

Saturday, November 3, 2012
2:00 PM | Chinoiserie Moderne: Beyond Exoticism
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (57th Street & 7th Avenue)
TICKETS:  Call +1-212-247-7800
Warren Lee, Nancy Loo, Mary Wu, and Nina Yip, Piano
Chuan-yun Li, Violin
Andrew Ling, Viola and Violin
Richard Bamping, Cello
Yuki Ip, Soprano
Special appearance by Barbara Fei, Narrator

CHOU WENCHUNG The Willows Are New
TAN DUN Eight Memories in Watercolor
BRIGHT SHENG Three Chinese Love Songs; Seven Tunes Heard in China
ZHOU LONG Wu Kai; Wild Grass; Taiping Drum
CHEN YI Du Mu from Tibetan Tunes; Happiness from Tunes from My Home; Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in; Memory

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