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Hong Kong is about more than finance, politics, and whatever else may be in the news. It’s also about culture. Musicus Fest is one great example. Since 2010 the festival has nourished and celebrated the strength of the city’s classical music scene.
The 2023 edition features musicians from Austria, Italy, Canada, Australia, Korea, and Germany joining Hong Kong colleagues for a series of concerts and special events from Nov. 11 to Dec. 3.
Spotlighting Young Talent
A Nov. 21 concert will feature the Musicus Soloists Hong Kong ensemble. Joining the top young chamber musicians and soloists from Hong Kong who comprise the ensemble will be French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie, Canadian violinist Elissa Lee, and other acclaimed international soloists, performing music by Sibelius, Grieg, Carl Nielsen, and Arvo Pärt.
Internationally renowned cellist Trey Lee, the festival’s Founding Artistic Director, explained that the Musicus Society, the festival’s presenter, aims with the Musicus Fest and other programs “to deepen cross-cultural collaborations between local and international performers. And through raising the bar artistically and in terms of audience experience, we look forward to shaping the festival, and the city, as one of the world’s elite music-making destinations.”
Nurturing young musicians is a key mission of the Society. The festival’s Next Generation Virtuosi recital on Nov. 24 features Aaron Chan, the violinist who won this year’s Musicus Society Young Artist Audition. Chan has also twice won the Sylva Gelber Award, won concerto competitions at McGill and Rice universities and the Cleveland Institute, and been hailed for his “bravura technique and poetic imagination.”
He’ll be accompanied by Hong Kong pianist Colleen Lee, an International Chopin Piano Competition prizewinner, in a program that includes music by Beethoven, Grieg, Clara Schumann, Jenő Hubay and contemporary composer Richard Dubugnon.
Camerata Salzburg at Musicus Fest
World-renowned Austrian chamber orchestra Camerata Salzburg headlines with two concerts at Hong Kong City Hall’s concert hall.
On Nov. 25 they’ll perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Medelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, and be joined by soloist Trey Lee in Shostakovich’s Cello Concert No. 1.
And on Nov. 26 for the festival finale, violin soloists Fan Hiu-sing and Jeremy Hao will join Camerata Salzburg in a program that includes music by Mozart and Joachim Raff, as well as Leó Weiner’s Divertimento No. 1 featuring Ensemble Training students.
Special Events
But it’s a family show with an international flavor that will launch Musicus Fest 2023. “Marco Polo’s Musical Encounter of East and West,” on Nov. 11, will merge storytelling with music from different traditions, with Chinese instruments like the pipa, the erhu, and the yangqin, a Chinese hammered dulcimer, together with Western instruments from classical and popular traditions.
On Dec. 1–3 Musicus Fest will continue the Musicus Society’s ongoing Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories series. These events present renowned international artists performing classical music in the context of Hong Kong’s history and culture.
For more details and the full schedule, visit the Musicus Fest website.
