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Presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, "A Musical Journey to Northwest China" by Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble will be staged in June.
The concert will feature music developed along the Silk Road in northwest China. A delightful programme will be performed by Ma Di, who has been hailed as the "Top Dizi Player of Northwest China", as well as Han Jingna (erhu and aijieke), Kwok Ka-ying (yangqin) and Wu Chun-hei (guanzi) under the baton of conductor Huang Kuang-yu.
The programme will include the ensemble pieces "Reverberating Charm of Shaanxi", "Dance Music of Southern Xinjiang" and "Overlapping II" (Hong Kong premiere); the dizi and ensemble works "The Gobi Desert" and "Landscape of the Frontier"; the guanzi ensemble piece "Dance of Qiuci"; the aijieke and ensemble composition "Spring in Xinjiang"; the dizi solo pieces "A Lyric on Qinchuan" and "Looking Homeward"; the erhu solo composition "Qinfeng"; the yangqin solo work "A Symphonic Poem of Tianshan"; and the octet piece "Dunhuang" (Hong Kong premiere).
Acclaimed in the Chinese music circle in Taiwan as an outstanding young conductor, Huang Kuang-yu is a much sought-after guest conductor for various orchestras. Huang is currently the conductor of the ZhongHua Chinese Orchestra, and is the Artistic Director and conductor of the Taipei Zanying Chinese Orchestra and the Kinmen Chinese Orchestra.
Ma Di is a professional Chinese dizi player. Ma is currently a Professor of the China Conservatory of Music and the Xi'an Conservatory of Music. Ma is well known for his dizi playing technique of the Chang'an stylistic school. His best-known works include "A Lyric on Qinchuan", "The Gobi Desert", "Landscape of the Frontier" and "Looking Homeward".
Han Jingna will play the aijieke, a popular instrument in Xinjiang. Kwok Ka-ying and Wu Chun-hei will perform pieces full of northwest musical styles on the yangqin and the guanzi.
The Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble has a mission of developing Chinese music culture in Hong Kong and showing the unique charm of Chinese ensemble music, which is known for being "small but elegant, and simple but refined". Since 2004, the group has curated close to 40 concerts and has shared the concert stage with virtuosi from Hong Kong and across the world. The group's tours have taken it to the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and various cities and provinces in the Mainland.
"A Musical Journey to Northwest China" by the Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble will be staged at 8pm on June 8 (Sunday) at the Auditorium of Tsuen Wan Town Hall. Tickets priced at $140, $120 and $100 are now available at all URBTIX outlets, on the Internet and by telephone credit card booking. 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 CSSA recipients available on a first-come, first-served basis). Please refer to the programme leaflet for details of the group booking discount.
For programme enquiries, please call 2268 7321; for ticketing enquiries call 3761 6661. For telephone credit card bookings, call 2111 5999. Internet bookings are available at www.urbtix.hk. For more information on the programme, please visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/
music/program_544.html .
A pre-concert talk, "A Close Look at Northwest China" (to be conducted in Cantonese and Putonghua) will be held at 7.30pm on June 5 (Thursday) at AC1, 4/F, Administration Building, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, with Huang Kuang-yu as a speaker, Ma Di and Han Jingna as both speakers and demonstrators, and Chan Chiu-yin as the moderator. Admission is free. Seats are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Ends/Thursday, April 24, 2014
Issued at HKT 12:35
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