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Local and overseas alumni of the Hong Kong Youth Symphonic Band will perform together at a concert to celebrate the band﷿s 30th anniversary and showcase its achievements over the past three decades.
The concert will be at the Auditorium of the Sha Tin Town Hall on Sunday (May 25) at 3pm. The Music Office﷿s first Senior Music Officer (Wind) John Cheng, and a former trainee of the Music Office who is now the Deputy Music Director of the Hong Kong Police Band, James Leung, will be guest conductors.
Under the baton of Pak Wing-heng, together with the two guest conductors, current members and former trainees of the Music Office will perform various musical pieces with brass and woodwind instruments.
Programme highlights include a traditional march characterised by original ornaments, Kamioka Youichi﷿s 䩕In Autumn Skies蒅, Faure﷿s 䩕Pavane, Op.50蒅, Holst﷿s 䩕First Suite in E-flat for Military Band, Op.28蒅, Gould﷿s 䩕American Salute蒅 and Ticheli﷿s 䩕Blue Shades蒅.
The concert will also feature Chinese musical works including Shu Yong-gang﷿s 䩕Blessings蒅, the energetic 䩕Riding Horse in Spring蒅 and 䩕Moonlight Kung Fu蒅, and Chung Yiu-kwong﷿s 䩕Millennium Lauds蒅.
The Hong Kong Youth Symphonic Band, trained and managed by the Music Office of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, was formed in 1978. Over the years, it has nurtured several generations of young musicians and stimulated a wider public interest in wind music in Hong Kong. The band currently has 78 members aged from 10 to 24.
The band has performed with a number of distinguished guest musicians and bands, including the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, the Tanunda Band of Australia, the Regimental Band of the Green Jackets, the Scots Guards, the Narashino Girls﷿ High School Band and Shoyo High School Band in Japan, the Baden-W䏳rttemberg Youth Wind Ensemble, as well as with a number of youth bands in Canada, Japan, Australia, Philippines and Singapore.
The band also performed under the baton of many noted conductors such as Bruce Pearson, Dr Vondis Miller and Robert Lutt from the United States, Eric Banks from the United Kingdom, Felix Hauswirth from Switzerland, Russell Hammond and Ralph Hultgren from Australia and Li Fangfang from Beijing.
In 2001, the band participated in the 2001 Jeju Summer Band Festival organised by Jeju City in Korea. Other concert tours have included Japan in 1986, the Fifth Pacific Basin Festival in Hawaii in 1990 and a number of music exchanges in Australia in 1993.
Tickets priced at $80, $60 and $40 for the concert are now available at all URBTIX outlets. Half-price concessions are available for senior citizens, people with disabilities, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients.
For programme enquiries, please call 2796 7537 or 2582 5311 or visit the website www.lcsd.gov.hk/musicoffice. Internet bookings can be made at www.urbtix.hk and telephone reservations on 2734 9009.
Ends/Monday, May 19, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:08
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