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A sequence of outdoor concerts titled "Music on the Wave" will be staged at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza this weekend (October 30 and 31) from 4.30pm to 7.30pm. The concerts will feature the icon of crossover music, Mr Wu Tong and his Ensemble, post-80s band JAM from Xinjiang and renowned local a cappella group Gay Singers. Admission is free.
Among the world's finest players of the Chinese instrument "sheng", Mr Wu Tong and his Ensemble breathe new life into Chinese music by also incorporating Western instruments. Xinjiang Uyghur band JAM will bring a fusion of ethnic Uyghur music, Spanish Flamenco and Cuban rhythm, while local group Gay Singers will allure the audiences with delightful a cappella and vocal accompaniment.
Born to a musical family, Mr Wu Tong has been a soloist for the China Central Traditional Music and Dance Company. He was the founding vocalist of the pioneering rock band Lunhui (Again), in which Western and Asian traditions merged with modernity. Mr Wu joined the Silk Road Ensemble in 1999 as a performer of Sheng and Bawu. The album Mr Yo-Yo Ma and Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace, won the 2010 Grammy Awards - in the category of Classical Crossover Album.
The five members of JAM originate from different regions of Xinjiang. They specialise in a fusion of Uyghur ethnic music, Spanish Flamenco and Cuban rhythm, while also exploring and celebrating Arabic and Gypsy-Indian influences, expressing a pan-Central-Asian sensibility for passion and freedom, and thereby creating a distinctive World Music sound, which is at once local and global.
The most renowned a cappella group in Hong Kong, Gay Singers have adopted the Western classical vocal tradition in favour of the dominant trends of pop, rock, Jazz and doo-wap. But in terms of repertoire and rendition, the band adopts the contemporary "fusion" style that has made Hong Kong unique - a style which incorporates the classical and the modern, and showcases the mingling of East and West.
"Music on the Wave" is the outdoor programme of the New Vision Arts Festival presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. For more details, please visit: www.lcsd.gov.hk/eo .
Ends/Thursday, October 28, 2010
Issued at HKT 13:06
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