Acclaimed British pianist Peter Donohoe
opens Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s 2010/2011 season
Two best-loved piano concertos two nights in a row
After a successful collaboration with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta performing all four of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos in 2008, acclaimed British pianist Peter Donohoe returns this April to open the orchestra’s new season. He will join Music Director/ Conductor Yip Wing-sie to perform two great piano concertos by Tchaikovsky (16 Apr) and Brahms (17 Apr), two nights in a row. Sheng performer Loo Sze-wang will also join the orchestra in the world première of Chan Hing-yan’s new commissioned work – Hark the Phoenix Soaring High. Programme also includes Schumann’s Symphony No 2 (16 Apr) and No 4 (17 Apr), to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth.
The concert will be held on:
Peter Donohoe Plays Tchaikovsky
16 April 2010 (Fri) 8:00pm at HK City Hall Concert Hall
Tickets: $280，$200，$120。
Peter Donohoe Plays Brahms
17 April 2010 (Sat) 8:00pm at HK City Hall Concert Hall
Tickets: $280，$200，$120。
Return of acclaimed pianist Peter Donohoe
Widely acknowledged as one the greatest living British pianists, Peter Donohoe performs regularly with many of the world’s finest orchestras, such as the Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle and Vienna Symphony Orchestra. He was an annual performer at the BBC Proms for 17 years, and has appeared in many festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival and others in France and Germany.
World Première – Hark the Phoenix Soaring High
New commissioned work Hark the Phoenix Soaring High is especially written for sheng and orchestra. “The form of the sheng (Chinese mouth-organ) is said to be like the body of phoenix, with its pipes symbolizing the wings of the immortal bird. Hark the Phoenix Soaring High is a dialogue for sheng and orchestra, featuring the phoenix-like instrument gliding through different timbral spectra and musical styles as the three-movement work unfolds.” Composer Chan Hing-yan said. Hong Kong foremost sheng player Loo Sze-wang will join the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in the piece.
For further information, please contact Ms Amanda Mok, PR & Communications Manager:
Email：amanda.mok@hksinfonietta.org Tel: 3607 2328
For photos, please download from http://www.hksl.org/eng/media/imageLibrary.aspx
Peter Donohoe plays Tchaikovsky
Music Director/ Conductor: Yip Wing-sie
Piano: Peter Donohoe
Sheng: Loo Sze-wang
16 April 2010 (Fri) 8pm
Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall
Tickets：$280, $200, $120
Programme
Chan Hing-yan Hark the Phoenix Soaring High for sheng & orchestra (world première)
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 in B-flat minor, Op 23
Schumann Symphony No 2 in C, Op 61
Peter Donohoe plays Brahms
Music Director/ Conductor: Yip Wing-sie
Piano: Peter Donohoe
Sheng: Loo Sze-wang
17 April 2010 (Sat) 8pm
Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall
Tickets：$280, $200, $120
Programme
Chan Hing-yan Hark the Phoenix Soaring High for sheng & orchestra
Schumann Symphony No 4 in D, Op 120
Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 in B-flat, Op 83
Get a 20% discount when you purchase full-price tickets to both concerts on 16 and 17 Apr 2010.
Peter Donohoe Piano
Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. His early years were spent at Chetham's School of Music, before going on to Leeds University and the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied with Derek Wyndham. Later he spent a year in Paris studying with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. Since his unprecedented success as joint winner of the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he has developed a distinguished career in Europe, the USA, the Far East and Australasia. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique. In 2006 he was invited by the Netherlands to be Ambassador for Music in the Middle East.
During the 2009/10 season Peter Donohoe’s engagements include the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, recitals in Moscow and St Petersburg and a chamber music tour with the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet in Ireland. Last season he performed with the Dresden Staatskapelle with Myung-Whun Chung, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel and Gurzenich Orchestra with Ludovic Morlot.
Peter Donohoe has recently played with all the major London orchestras, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Czech Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Vienna Symphony Orchestras. He was an annual visitor to the BBC Proms for 17 years and has appeared at many other festivals including six consecutive visits to the Edinburgh Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, and at the Ruhr and Schleswig Holstein Festivals in Germany. In North America, his appearances have included the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Vancouver and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. Peter Donohoe has worked with many of the worlds’ greatest conductors including Simon Rattle, Christoph Eschenbach, Neeme Jarvi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Andrew Davis and Yevgeny Svetlanov.
Peter Donohoe is a keen chamber musician and performs frequently with the pianist Martin Roscoe. They have given performances in London and at the Edinburgh Festival and have recorded discs of Gershwin and Rachmaninov. Other musical partners have included the Maggini Quartet, with whom he has made recordings of several great British chamber works.
Peter Donohoe has made many fine recordings on EMI Records for which he has won many awards for them including the Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt for Lizst’s Sonata in B minor and the Gramophone Concerto Award for the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 2. His recordings of Messiaen with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble for Chandos Records and Litolff for Hyperion have also received widespread acclaim. In 2001 Naxos released a disc of music by Finzi, the first of a major series of recordings (currently 13 discs) which aims to raise the public's awareness of British piano repertoire through concert performance and recordings.
Loo Sze-wang Sheng
Prize-winning Loo Sze-wang is the foremost sheng (Chinese mouth-organ) player of his generation in Hong Kong. He is active as both a soloist and chamber musician. He has been featured several times at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the contemporary music festival Musicarama and Radio Television Hong Kong. Loo has performed with many different groups, including the Song Company of Australia, Xenia Ensemble of Italy, St. Lawrence String Quartet of the States, POING of Norway, Het Collectif of Brussels, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Macao Orchestra, in various countries including Argentina, Australia, Canada, United States, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Singapore, Korea and China. His recent performances include the premiere of Sheng concerto Mirror de Macau, composed by the renowned composer Lam Bun Ching, a recital at Cornell University, New York and a solo performance with Fulcrum Point New Music project in Northwestern University, Chicago.
As a founding member of Chinese Music Virtuosi, a 6-member Chinese instrumental ensemble that performs new and traditional works, Loo has performed at the Garden Festival in Warsaw, Poland, the Melbourne Festival in Australia, Singapore Arts Festival, Buenos Aires International Music Festival in Argentina, New Vision Festival of Hong Kong, and the Chinese Composers’ Festival, among others. The group has also commissioned over a dozen new works, which include works that score for both Chinese and Western instruments.
A graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Loo’s sheng teachers included Chen De-ren and Cheng Tak-wai and he has also taken flute lessons from Timothy Wilson and Chan Kwok-chiu.
Chan Hing-yan Composer
Chan Hing-yan received his DMA from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, majoring in composition and minoring in ethnomusicology. He was Visiting Scholar of the composition faculty of the University for the academic year 1995-96. As a composer, he has represented Hong Kong on different occasions, including Hong Kong Sinfonietta's European Tour (2005), the recent performance of his Madame Cadavre in the Year of China in France by L’Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and John Nelson (2004), UNESCO's International Rostrum of Composers (2000 & 2003), and the Conference and Festival of Asian Composers' League (1998).
Chan's diverse output, which includes solo, chamber, choral and orchestral, often subtly incorporates Chinese elements. More than half of Chan’s compositions are written for a mixed ensemble consisting of Chinese and Western instruments. His works have been heard around the world in Europe, North and South America, China and Southeast Asia, at festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival (2009), Chinese Musicians Residency, Cornell (2009), Shanghai Spring International Music Festival (2007), Hommage à Bartók, Budapest (2006), Les Flâneries Musicales d’Eté de Reims (2005), Pa?aislis Festival, Kaunas (2005), Beijing Modern Festival (2004), Festival Internacional Encuentros in Buenos Aires (2004), International Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam (2003), Melbourne Festival (2002), Singapore Arts Festival (2002 & 2006), Budapest Music Week (2001), Musica Nova Festival in Estonia (2001), and Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music (2001). Chan’s recent collaborations with the City Contemporary Dance Company have won him much acclaim as well as a Hong Kong Dance Award (2008).
Chan currently lectures at The University of Hong Kong.
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Hong Kong Sinfonietta is the Venue Partner of the Hong Kong City Hall
Hong Kong Sinfonietta is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative region
Hong Kong Sinfonietta reserves the right to change the programme and artists
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