The University of Music and Performing Arts – Vienna streamed live either Vienna or Hong Kong Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall – Hong Kong The Future Lab Concert Hall The Fanny Hensel Hall Alvaro Pierri, Honggi Kim, Giuseppe Andaloro, Ilya Rashkovskiy, Luka Okros, Jinang Lee Anastasia Kobekina, The Simply Quartet Colleen Lee, Rachel Cheung, Ling Wang, Maestro YVES ABEL, Emanuil Ivanov THE HONG KONG PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA CAMILLE SAINT- SAËNS Streaming Live Music
Joy of Music Festival 2020, Chopin, Piano, Guitar, Hong Kong, Classic Music Joy of Music Festival 2020, Chopin, Piano, Guitar, Hong Kong, Classic Music Joy of Music Festival 2020, Chopin, Piano, Guitar, Hong Kong, Classic Music
Joy of Music Festival 2020, Chopin, Piano, Guitar, Hong Kong, Classic Music Joy of Music Festival 2020, Chopin, Piano, Guitar, Hong Kong, Classic Music
Chopin, Joy of Music Festival, Music Festical, Piano, Guitar, Music Competition
Chopin, Joy of Music Festival, Music Festical, Piano, Guitar, Music Competition

CREATING A MUSICAL BUBBLE BETWEEN
THE HONG KONG CITY HALL CONCERT HALL AND
mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna:
The Presentation of the Hong Kong Joy of Music Festival, 2021

It would be impossible to refer to this year’s presentation of the Hong Kong Joy of Music Festival without making reference to the COVID 19 pandemic, which has been determining the way things are being done in more ways than one, all over the world.

A lot of people have lost their lives and many more have had their livelihood affected by suffering and by the consequences of having suffered this viral infection.

Different countries have adopted different policies in order to stop the spread of this infection but there is a common denominator to all these policies which is the need to keep isolated all those infected people in order to protect all others from being infected and the application of mass vaccination campaigns the speed of which vary enormously from country to country.

All this has played havoc in Societies globally and musical presentations are not, of course, immune to all these problems.

Although we are of the strong opinion that live performances will never be substituted by streamed ones, we are nowadays having access to very acceptable alternatives made possible by the advances in technology which has come to the rescue and has defined new fields of communication which are here to stay, not as substitutes but to co-exist with the traditional ways we are accustomed to. And that is how we started thinking of the hybrid format to present our HK Joy of Music Festival – 2021. A game changer that made all of this possible, was the privilege of having been able to enter into a partnership, for the presentation of this Festival, with mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, to whom we are deeply thankful.

On the assumption that it will be more likely that artists will be able to move between European countries without the need to quarantine, the latter seeming to be the likely situation if they were to come to Hong Kong, we organized for 8 of the 10 performances part of the Festival to take place live in Vienna and the other two to take place live in Hong Kong. The ones taking place in Vienna will be streamed live, in real time, to Hong Kong (each of the 8 performances will take place at mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, at 2pm so that they will be presented, streamed live, in real time, at 8pm at the City Hall Concert Hall in Hong Kong).

And in the case of the two performances which will take place at the City Hall Concert Hall in Hong Kong, they will be streamed live, in real time, to mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (each of the 2 performances will take place at 8pm in Hong Kong so they will be streamed live at 2pm in Vienna).

In all 10 cases, there will be a live audience both in Vienna and in Hong Kong. The two performances that will be presented live in Hong Kong will be by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Yves Abel, performing an all Saint Saëns programme, commemorating the 100th year anniversary of his death.

- On Saturday 16th Oct., the programme will comprise of two symphonic works, the violin concerto No.3 (soloist: Wang Liang) and the piano concerto No.2, (soloist: Colleen Lee).
- On Sunday 17th Oct., the programme will comprise of two symphonic works, the cello concerto No.1 (soloist: Richard Bamping), the piano concerto No.5 (soloist: Rachel Cheung) and the duo concertante for violin, cello and orchestra: La Muse et le Po?te (soloists: Wang Liang and Richard Bamping).
-

The remaining 8 concerts will take place live in Vienna and will be streamed live, in real time, to the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, and will be featuring the following artists: Opening the Festival, we will be presenting Alvaro Pierri (guitar), whose concerts have been a highlight and a permanent feature in our yearly Joy of Music Festival, since its inception. Himself a Professor of Guitar at mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, he will be offering a programme mostly of chamber music performed with the Logos Chamber Group, and in collaboration also with Gilberto Pereyra (bandoneon) and Giuseppe Andaloro (piano) and Honggi Kim (piano).

mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, will be further represented by their star Chamber ensemble: The Simply Quartet, formed by Danfeng Shen (violin), Antonia Rankersberger (violin), Xiang Lyu (viola) and Ivan Valentin Hollup Roald (cello).

The Chopin Society of Hong Kong is proud to count with its own Chamber Group, (the LOGOS Chamber Group) consisting of four distinguished string players who have been playing together during its annual Joy of Music Festivals and its triennial HK International Piano Competitions. They are: Michael Brooks Reid (violin), Magnus Johnston (violin), Joel Hunter (viola) and Pierre Doumenge (cello). This year, we are delighted to welcome a new artist to be part of the LOGOS Chamber Group: Rick Stotijn (double bass)

Each one of the five HK International Piano Competitions which the Society has presented so far, has contributed its First Prize Winner as an additional member of our Winners Club who, among other engagements, are invited every year to perform during the HK Joy of Music Festival. So far, the members of the Winners Club are: Ilya Rashkovskiy (Competition 2005), Jinsang Lee (Competition 2008), Giuseppe Andaloro (Competition 2011), Luka Okros (Competition 2016) and Honggi Kim (Competition 2019). Giuseppe Andaloro, Ilya Rashkovskiy and Honggi Kim will be giving solo piano performances during this Festival, combining their solo recitals with chamber music playing with members of the Logos Chamber Group. Luka Okros will be giving a cello and piano recital together with Anastasia Kobekina and they will be joined by the Logos Chamber Group to perform a piece by de Falla, while Jinsang will be giving a solo piano recital.

Last but not least, closing the Festival, we will be presenting a solo piano recital by Emanuil Ivanov, First prize winner of the Bussoni Competition 2019.

In these difficult times, we hope you will join us in the safety of the musical bubble Hong Kong – Vienna and enjoy the Festival !!!

 

Dr Andrew Freris
Chairman,
The Chopin Society of Hong Kong Ltd.

 

   
Copyright © 2021 The Chopin Society of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.