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Acclaimed British tenor Ian Bostridge will team up with Beijing-born guitarist Xuefei Yang in October for a programme of art songs and guitar music from different periods. This is the duo's first performance in Asia and the concert will also mark Bostridge's Hong Kong debut.
The performance will be held at 8pm on October 25 (Sunday) at the Concert Hall of Hong Kong City Hall. The programme will include works by Dowland, Britten, Schubert, Argento, Goss, Debussy and Falla, as well as some traditional Chinese songs.
Born in London in 1965, Bostridge began singing professionally at 27 and became a full-time singer in 1995. His international recital career has taken him to the festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, Munich, Vienna, Aldeburgh and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and to the main stages of New York's Carnegie Hall and Milan's La Scala. He has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. His recordings have won various major international record prizes and have been nominated for 13 Grammys. In 2003 he was made an Honorary Doctor of music by the University of St Andrews and in 2010 an Honorary Fellow of St John's College Oxford. He was made a CBE in the 2004 New Year's honours.
Yang is acclaimed as one of the world's finest classical guitarists. After graduating from Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music, she went on to become the first Chinese musician to receive a full scholarship for postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she received the Principal's Prize on completion of her postgraduate study. She became the first internationally recognised Chinese guitarist on the world stage and has been invited to play at prestigious venues in more than 50 countries, and frequently plays with the world's leading orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Royal Scotland National Orchestra. Yang has made several acclaimed recordings which reflect her interest in expanding the guitar repertoire and some of the new transcriptions and original works for guitar will be performed in this concert.
"Concert by Ian Bostridge (Tenor) and Xuefei Yang (Guitar)" is among the programmes in the Leisure and Cultural Services Department's Great Music 2015 series. Tickets priced at $150, $200, $260 and $320 are now available at URBTIX. Half-price tickets are available for senior citizens aged 60 or above, people with disabilities and their minders, full-time students and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients (limited tickets for full-time students and CSSA recipients are available on a first-come, first-served basis). A maximum discount of 20 per cent is offered for the Great Music 2015 package discount scheme. Please refer to the programme leaflet or the website for details.
A pre-concert talk entitled "Strumming across Centuries: Songs from John Dowland to Benjamin Britten" will be held at 6.45pm on October 25 at the North Committee Room, 7/F, High Block, Hong Kong City Hall. The free talk will be conducted in Cantonese by Dennis Wu.
Highlights of Great Music 2015 also include "Piano Recital by Nelson Freire" (September 8), "Hagen Quartet" (October 6), "Vienna Boys Choir" (October 10 and 11), "Singapore Chinese Orchestra" (October 17 and 18), "Violin Recital by Itzhak Perlman" (November 8) and Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore" by Musica Viva (December 11 to 13).
For enquiries on programmes, please call 2268 7321 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/music/program_787.html. For telephone credit card booking, please call 2111 5999. Tickets can also be booked online at www.urbtix.hk.
Ends/Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Issued at HKT 12:07
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