The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra's celebration tour commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of the HKSAR...

On June 11th the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra's celebration tour commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of the HKSAR came to a successful conclusion. Under the baton of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Yan Huichang, the orchestra presented both traditional and contemporary pieces. This tour had profound commemorative significance, marking both the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the orchestra and the 20th anniversary of principal conductor Yan Huichang directing it.

The tour officially began on June 2nd at Tianjin’s Grand Theatre with an audience of over 1000 eager music lovers. The orchestra performed the 'Yellow River Rhapsody' while the audience joined in on rattle-drums under the baton of conductor Yan Huichang. In gratitude for the audience’s everlasting applause the orchestra gave two encores. On June 6th, the performance in Shanghai marked the grand opening of a series of events to celebrate the establishment of the HKSAR. Yajun Zhou, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the Shanghai government, and Zhongmin Deng, Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Shanghai watched the performance and welcomed the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. They expressed their hope for further cooperation and communication in the future.

On June 11th, the tour ended perfectly at Chengdu’s Telunsu Concert Hall. Zhiyuan Tan, Director of the Constitution and Mainland Affairs Bureau, Weiping Zhao, Deputy Secretary of the Sichuan Government, Xinhai Mu, Director of Hong Kong and Macao Affairs at the Sichuan Government, Yawen Lin, Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Chengdu all attended the event. As an encore, the orchestra chose the classic music piece ‘The Legend of the Eagle Shooting Hero’, a masterpiece of martial arts fiction novels.

Wu Promotion and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra have worked together for 15 years promoting traditional Chinese music. In 2002 and 2011, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra performed Wu Promotions’ ‘The Grand Chinese New Year Concert’ in Europe and showed the world the charm of traditional Chinese music, whilst in 2017 we brought traditional Chinese music back to its roots. After the performance in Beijing on June 3rd, the General Manager of Wu Promotion Jiatong Wu commented: ‘It was in 2002 that we first worked with Conductor Yan Huichang, Director Qian Minhua and the orchestra. We were all in the first flush of youth 15 years ago, but even though we're older now, we're even more vigorous and full of life!’