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Tarmo Peltokoski conducts the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in its 2023/24 season finale concert on July 5. The incoming music director was received enthusiastically by the audience at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Review | Tarmo Peltokoski draws precise Prokofiev, mixed Mahler from HK Phil

Orchestra’s incoming music director produced a concert of two halves: the discipline and control he showed in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 2 unravelled in the animated sections of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.

  • Orchestra’s music director designate was in full control of Prokofiev piano concerto with Seong-Jin Cho, less so of Mahler’s Symphony No 5

How to put Hong Kong on global cultural map? Star cellist’s tips

HK Phil appoints Finnish conductor, 24, as next music director

Jaap van Zweden on making the HK Phil into a Ferrari, and a Mozart miss

Outgoing music director likens the flexibility playing Wagner has given the orchestra to driving a Ferrari, talks about improving, not firing, players, and says his one regret is not putting on a Mozart opera.

Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra receive the applause of the audience at the end of his farewell concert on June 25, 2024. The Dutchman has stepped down as music director after 12 years. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Review | The Flying Dutchman a mark of HK Phil’s progress under Jaap van Zweden

It was Wagner that changed the Hong Kong Philharmonic’s profile, so it was fitting that one of Jaap van Zweden’s last programmes as its music director was a concert version of opera The Flying Dutchman.

2 programmes bring Jaap van Zweden’s time with HK Phil to extraordinary end

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra is bidding farewell to Jaap van Zweden with a programme that reflects the legacy of its formidable music director.

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Yip Wai-hong, giant of music education in Hong Kong, dies at 94

Yip Wai-hong committed his life to music education, founding two orchestras and the world’s largest children’s choir. He dies on Father’s Day after a visit from his daughters, among them Yip Wing-sie.

Yip Wai-hong, founder of the Hong Kong Children’s Choir and Yip’s Children’s Choir, in 1997 at the music education centre he founded. Photo: SCMP

Review | In Joyce DiDonato’s Eden exceptional singing and an urgent message

American mezzo-soprano’s show Eden, about the importance of nature and the ravages of war, draws on 400 years of song. DiDonato’s deeply felt singing and vocal and physical expressiveness were captivating.

Review | Sibelius concerto with Hong Kong Sinfonietta tests violinist

Soloist Liya Petrova was up to most of the challenges posed by the Sibelius violin concerto, and received great support from the Sinfonietta. Asian premieres of two UK composers’ works were a mixed bag.

Profile | ‘A hard path’: Hong Kong violin virtuoso Paloma So on pursuing music career

On the back of a tour of mainland China with the HK Phil, Hong Kong rising-star violinist Paloma So spoke to the Post about spreading music to young people, and her unlikely career in classical music.

Paloma So in Hong Kong. Photo: Antony Dickson

Profile | He’s played some of world’s best organs, but not in Hong Kong, his home

Eric Chan’s life-changing moment came when he played the Royal Albert Hall organ for a schools concert – ‘the whole building started shaking.’ The Hong Kong organist tours Europe, yet can’t play at home.

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Hong Kong-born organist Eric Chan is still waiting for a first opportunity to share his passion for the organ with a home audience. He recalls how playing the organ at London’s Royal Albert Hall made him want to study the instrument and become a professional. Photo: courtesy of Eric Chan

Hong Kong musician showcases the beauty of the organ

Breakdancers to share stage with classical musicians in 2 Hong Kong events

Hip hop artists, breakdancers, martial artists and orchestral musicians aim to create ‘unexpected dialogues’ in a Hong Kong show, while another that also has skaters and BMX riders has a similar theme.

‘Feel connected again’: singer Joyce DiDonato’s message about nature

In her Eden show, coming soon to Hong Kong, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato doesn’t just sing about nature – she hands audience members seeds to sow to bring them closer to nature.

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Grammy Award-winning opera star Joyce DiDonato is bringing her Eden show to Hong Kong. Photo: Sergi Jasanada

‘She makes it sound easy’: why opera soprano Lise Davidsen is a huge star

Soprano Lise Davidsen, whose debut in Strauss’ Salome at Paris Opéra Bastille drew fans to the French capital, is one of classical music’s biggest draws, admired for her amazing voice.

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Soprano Lise Davidsen (above, rehearsing her lead role in Strauss’ Salome at Paris Opéra Bastille) is one of classical music’s biggest draws, and admired by industry professionals for her amazing voice. Photo: AP

Writer on TV’s Succession updates Puccini opera with new ending

A writer on HBO series Succession has created a new ending for Puccini’s unfinished opera Turandot. Susan Soon He Stanton talks about updating the tale of the murderous Chinese princess.

Met Opera women conductors on progress in their ‘conservative’ industry

New York’s Metropolitan Opera hosted four women conductors in one landmark week. They talk about their journeys in a ‘very conservative’ industry, the progress they see, and the work still to be done.

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Conducting master classes in Hong Kong that you can sit in on

French conductor Philippe Fournier will watch over a two-day conducting master class organised by the co-founders of Hong Kong ensemble Le Gai, in an effort to fill a gap in local music education.

Edith Tam, a conductor, horn player and co-founder of Hong Kong ensemble Le Gai, is organising a two-day conducting masterclass that will be watched over by French conductor Philippe Fournier. Photo: Nathan Tsui

Review | Shark Symphony: fun, family-friendly musical about sustainability

The City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong’s third original musical, Shark Symphony features a dazzling range of diverse performances to tell a story based on sustainability and shark’s fin soup.

Cellist Zlatomir Fung brilliant in recital with Hong Kong’s Rachel Cheung

His playing by turns spectacular in execution and spellbinding in its tenderness, Bulgarian-Chinese cellist Zlatomir Fung and pianist Cheung, never second fiddle to him, deliver a recital to remember.

Like a school trip for grown-ups: Hong Kong Philharmonic tours Europe

Named orchestra of the year in 2019, HK Phil planned a tour to capitalise on the accolade, but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed it. Five years later it finally set off. Post Magazine went along for the ride.

Jaap van Zweden conducts the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Alexandre Kantorow in a concert in Basel, Switzerland. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil

The Chinese piano brand making a play for world domination

China’s largest piano maker Pearl River is trying to make headway globally and rival the likes of Yamaha and Steinway with its Kayserburg, ‘an ultimate piano’ for the international market.

Pearl River Piano Global Head of Marketing Leng Tshua, with a Pearl River grand piano, at his offices in Kwai Chung. 21DEC23 SCMP / Jonathan Wong

‘Intimate recital’: cello prodigy Zlatomir Fung on his Hong Kong debut

US cellist Zlatomir Fung, who has Bulgarian and Chinese ancestry and studied at New York’s Juilliard, make his Hong Kong debut, his grandfather’s birthplace, playing with local pianist Rachel Cheung.

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He’s like a K-pop idol for classical music fans – meet Danny Koo

Sometimes called an ‘idol of classical music’, South Korean violinist Danny Koo wants to make his style and genre of music more accessible to the public – and so far, he is succeeding.

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Review | Hong Kong Philharmonic and Paavo Järvi’s shattering Shostakovich 5

Orchestra under Estonian maestro give a chilling account of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5, after some riotous Rimsky-Korsakov and a commanding Stravinsky Violin Concerto with soloist Alena Baeva.

Estonian-American guest conductor Paavo Järvi had the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on a tight rein in an all-Russian concert of music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky and Shostakovich at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on March 29, 2024. Photo: Keith Hiro/HK Phil

Review | Japanese drummer steals the show in concert with Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Senri Kawaguchi’s inspired drumming brings alive Hong Kong composer Ng Cheuk-yin’s Fly LIVE! and new work An Array of Stars in a fusion concert with Hong Kong orchestra.

Japanese drummer Senri Kawaguchi and bass guitarist Shingo Tanaka joined the Hong Kong Sinfonietta for performances of Fly LIVE! and another work by Hong Kong composer Ng Cheuk-yin as part of the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Hong Kong Sinfonietta

Beyond Art Basel: 6 art events around Hong Kong to enjoy right now

While Art Basel Hong Kong has plenty to keep the fine art-minded enthralled, simultaneous off-site events also showcase creative curiosities

Review | Feast of string playing from Concerto Italiano, Festival Strings Lucerne

Period instrument ensemble Concerto Italiano showed their mastery of baroque in a set of Vivaldi concertos; the Lucerne Festival Strings, performing with solo violinist Akiko Suwanai, were good in parts.

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Classical music
Home to two renowned orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and scores of other ensembles and players, as well as a magnet for many of the world’s leading performers, Hong Kong has one of the liveliest classical music scenes in Asia. Read previews and reviews of the biggest classical music events in Hong Kong, interviews with big players and tastemakers, profiles and news.
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