Hong Kong Philharmonic Society was an amateur music groups founded by a group of British music lovers in the colonial Hong Kong. Aim at producing various kind of musical performance by the British, later it focus on comic opera and made itself a quasi-theatrical group.
24-578: Hong Kong Philharmonic Society may refer to: Hong Kong Philharmonic Society (1895–1941) , the pre-war music society Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (1947–present), originally known as the Sino-British Orchestra during 1947–1957 Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Hong Kong Philharmonic Society . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
48-466: The Naxos label. Each year the orchestra holds a crossover concert with selected cantopop singers. Live recordings are made after each production. Since the concert of Michael Kwan (conducted by Joseph Koo ) in 1982, the most successful one has been the live recording of the concert with Jacky Cheung (conducted by Yip Wing-sie ) in 1996. After the reorganization from the Sino-British Orchestra into
72-602: The 2026-2027 season, with an initial contract of four years. He is to hold the title of music director-designate for the 2025-2026 season. The orchestra's current chief executive is Benedikt Fohr. Fohr is scheduled to stand down from the post at the close of the 2024-2025 season, in July 2025. In addition to classical performances, the orchestra occasionally appears backing local pop stars such as Hacken Lee , Jacky Cheung , Frances Yip , Teresa Carpio , Leehom Wang and Hins Cheung . The orchestra made its debut recording under
96-595: The Guard (1914). The Society gone silence again since 1914 because of the First World War. In 1923, the Society reactivated again. After two concerts, the Society gave a new trial on comic opera. The Society staged Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeoman of te Guard in 1924 and got a great success, it motivated the members of the Society to concentrate on English comic operas. Since 1924, they produced 19 operas before
120-707: The H.K. Philharmonic Society. However, various sources proved that, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society gave their first public performance on 23 November 1895, records of their performances in 1896 and 1897 can also be found. Since 1978, the pre-war Hong Kong Philharmonic Society was mistakenly regarded as the predecessor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra , which is registered as Hong Kong Philharmonic Society in 1957, and registered as limited company with same name in 1973. The Orchestra never made such claim of
144-824: The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 1957, the orchestra played the first concert in Loke Yew Hall, the University of Hong Kong . Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall was the performance venue of the orchestra in its early years. The orchestra was the first to perform in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre after the venue's opening in 1989, participating in the International Celebration of the Arts, which
168-627: The Italian violinist and conductor Arrigo Foa to take over the orchestra, and Bard worked as the concertmaster and deputy conductor of the Orchestra. Foa was a professional musician who joined Shanghai Municipal Orchestra as concertmaster in 1919. He succeeded Mario Paci as the conductor of the Shanghai orchestra in 1942, under the Japanese occupation. Foa migrated to Hong Kong in 1953 and led
192-487: The Society on 18 August 1928. In Harmon's clarification, he stated that, The present Hongkong Philharmonic Society is the resuscitation of the Hong Kong Choral Society, which was formed in the year 1861 [...] This Society continued to prosper until 1894, when a period of inactivity set in. A revival took place at a meeting held in 1903, when the name of the Society was changed to its present one, viz,
216-637: The World War II. Below is a list of opera productions by the Society since 1924: Though the repertoire of the Society was mainly comic opera after 1924, the Society also performed British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 's cantata Hiawatha in March 1935. The last appearance of the Society was 8 December 1941, that was a concert featured an all-Beethoven programme, consisted of Egmont Overture, Symphony No.5 and Piano Concerto No.5 with Harry Ore as soloist. Rayson Huang and Solomon Bard were playing in
240-510: The club, including drama, literature, film, and music. In 1947, Anthony Braga, one of the leaders of the music group of the Sino-British Club, suggested to form a symphony orchestra to gather instrumentalists in the city and provide musical performance to the citizens, as the society was still recovering from the World War II. About 20 amateur musicians were found, and a chamber orchestra was formed quickly. Weekly rehearsal started in
264-456: The establishment of the colonial Hong Kong, western music was brought to the little South China village by the British. Hong Kong Choral Society was founded in 1861 for the purpose of fund raising to the construction of the old City Hall. The Choral Society later changed its name to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society (not to be confused with a later orchestra founded after World War II sharing
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#1732802408770288-554: The label Philips in 1978. Its repertoire includes Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto and selected Chinese orchestral works, under the baton of Hans Gunther Mommer. In the 1980s, the orchestra made a serious recording for HK Records. Recordings were also made for the label Marco Polo after Klaus Heymann founded Naxos. Under the directorship of David Atherton, several recordings were released on Virgin Classics and GMN. In 1997,
312-428: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hong_Kong_Philharmonic_Society&oldid=1240142362 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Hong Kong Philharmonic Society (1895%E2%80%931941) After
336-444: The orchestra immediately. He led the orchestra to play a critically acclaimed concert with pianist Louis Kentner . Under the professional training of Foa, the orchestra improved rapidly, and gained a higher reputation in the city. Collaborating artists included pianist Julius Katchen and violinist Ruggiero Ricci . In 1957, members of the orchestra decided to separate the group from Sino-British Club. As an independent organisation,
360-485: The orchestra made its European début with performances in London's Barbican Hall , Belfast, Dublin and Paris ( Théâtre des Champs-Élysées ). The orchestra's most recent and longest-serving music director was Jaap van Zweden , from 2012 to 2024. In June 2023, Tarmo Peltokoski first guest-conducted the orchestra. In July 2024, the orchestra announced the appointment of Peltokoski as its next music director, effective with
384-516: The orchestra was featured in Tan Dun 's album Heaven Earth Mankind: Symphony 1997 ( Sony Classical Records ), as a celebration for the handover of Hong Kong. The orchestra started a four-year project in 2015, making it the first Hong Kong and mainland Chinese orchestra to perform Wagner 's The Ring of the Nibelung . The four operas were performed, one per year, in concert and recorded live for
408-544: The orchestra was first established in 1947 as an amateur orchestra under the name Sino-British Orchestra (中英管弦樂團), it was renamed the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 1957 and became a professional orchestra in 1974 under the funding of the government. The Sino-British Club was an organisation founded in 1946, aimed at promoting harmony among different groups in Hong Kong (especially British and native Hongkongese) through cultural activities. Various groups were found under
432-483: The orchestra was renamed to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and registered as the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society . Most of the musicians remained, and Foa and Bard stayed on the same positions in the new ensemble. In 1974, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra became the first professional orchestra in Hong Kong, while the Sino-British Club dismissed in the same year. Kek-tjiang Lim was
456-625: The orchestra's first music director with the ensemble in professional status, from 1974 to 1975. In February 1986, the HKPO made its debut tour of several cities in the People's Republic of China, with conductor Kenneth Schermerhorn and soloists Stephanie Chase (violin) and Li Jian (piano). In the autumn of 1995, the HKPO travelled to nine cities in the United States and Canada in its North American début under conductor David Atherton . In 2003,
480-606: The same name.) On 23 November 1895, the Society gave their first concert in Theatre Royal of the old City Hall. The programme included solo singing, choral singing, chamber music and orchestral music, the conductor of the concert was George P. Lammert , who was a famous auctioneer in the city. It organised variety show of music until 1897 and resumed in 1904. Their programme not just concert pieces but they already tried on theatrical works like Edward German 's Merry England (1913) and Gilbert and Sullivan 's The Yeoman of
504-519: The succession before 1978. In various publications in 2000's, Solomon Bard stated that the two Philharmonic Societies are not related, the only relation is the similarity of the names. Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra ( Cantonese : 香港管弦樂團) is a symphony orchestra based in Hong Kong . Colloquially referred to as the HKPO or HKPhil (Cantonese: 港樂),
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#1732802408770528-498: The summer. Solomon Bard, a violinist who just finished his medical degree in the UK, returned to Hong Kong in the autumn of 1947, and was invited by Braga to be the conductor of the orchestra. Bard took over the orchestra, and conducted its debut performance on 30 April 1948 in St. Stephen's Girls' College . Bard continued his directorship of the orchestra after the debut. In 1953, Bard invited
552-527: The violin section. According to Bard's autobiography, the conductor of the concert was killed in the first few days of the Battle of Hong Kong. The concert marked the end of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society. In 1928, the secretary of the Society T. V. Harmon submitted a letter to the editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph, to clarify the mistakes in an article which introduced a brief history of
576-472: Was a festival to open the centre. Since then, Hong Kong Philharmonic has been the most frequent orchestra to perform in the venue. The orchestra officially became the venue partner of Hong Kong Cultural Centre in 2009. The orchestra also gives an annual outdoor performance, 'Symphony Under the Stars', Hong Kong's largest outdoor symphonic concert, which attracts thousands of participants every year. Venues include
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