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Hong Kong Arts Festival

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Hong Kong Arts Festival
Hong Kong Arts Festival has been held annually since 1973. The 2020 edition is due to feature more than 120 performances by nearly 1,800 local and international artists. Read interviews and profiles of some of the leading performers, event previews and reviews.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
An envoy says Russian museums are considering sharing works with top Hong Kong institutions such as M+. Photo: Eugene Lee
Hong Kong economy

Exclusive | Russian art and Bolshoi in Hong Kong? Envoy says top museums ‘ready to share’

Envoy Anatoly Kargapolov says Moscow hopes to strengthen collaboration with Hong Kong in the arts, tourism and education.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

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

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Shanghai Ballet’s A Sigh of Love looked great but never came to life

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Robert Lepage uses puppets to tell story of teenage trauma in 1970s Quebec

Courville, Canadian Robert Lepage’s play centred on an LGBTQ teenager in 1970s Quebec, and performed as part of the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival, featured dazzling Japanese bunraku puppetry.

Olivier Normand, the only actor in Robert Lepage’s Courville, with the puppet of protagonist Simon’s alcoholic uncle. The play made deft use ofJapanese-style bunraku puppetry to tell an intense story of teenage trauma in 1970s Quebec. Photo: courtesy of Hong Kong Arts Festival
Performing arts in Hong Kong

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.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Heavy metal meets orchestral sound in Bright & Black, with mixed results

Hong Kong Arts Festival show with a rock concert vibe features pieces orchestral in scope composed by Nordic metalheads and performed by multinational Baltic Sea Philharmonic.

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Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Le Corsaire by La Scala ballet: well danced in places, but uneven

La Scala Theatre Ballet’s Hong Kong Arts Festival performance of Le Corsaire had its moments, not least a star turn by Nicoletta Manni as Medora, but was marred by odd story choices and some untidy dancing.

Nicoletta Manni as Medora in La Scala Theatre Ballet’s performance of Le Corsaire as part of the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Tony Luk
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe’s Peony Pavilion not ‘complete’ as advertised

The Chinese opera highlight of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Peony Pavilion (Complete Version), by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, was well done, but lacked the depth the title promised.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Multimedia choral concert rips musical works from their church settings

Garden of Repose at the West Kowloon Cultural District, a multimedia choral concert produced by the Hong Kong Arts Festival, includes works by Brahms, Arvo Pärt, Poulenc and Antonia Lotti.

Art

Review | Van Gogh and Klimt artworks get torn apart to music in vibrant choral show

Performed at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Van Gogh in Me is a multimedia display of music and visual art by the Netherlands Chamber Choir using works by Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Saint-Saëns and more.

The Netherlands Chamber Choir performs Van Gogh in Me during the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival. The concerts featured immersive digital projections of paintings by Van Gogh and Klimt set to music based on works by composers including Debussy, Gustav and Alma Mahler, and Saint-Saëns. Photo: Courtesy of HKAF
Performing arts in Hong Kong

‘Completely honest, with no fear’: pianist Minsoo Sohn’s approach to music

Pianist Minsoo Sohn, teacher of South Korean prodigy Yunchan Lim, is appearing in the 2024 Hong Kong Arts Festival. He talks to the Post about South Korea’s music scene and how he sees performing.

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Sohn comes from a musical family and started playing piano when he was three. Photo: Shin-joong Kim
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Why this young Hong Kong-born conductor chose to build his career in Seoul

Wilson Ng, former associate conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic, will bring his current orchestra, the Hankyung Arte Philharmonic, from South Korea to the Hong Kong Arts Festival in March.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Audiovisual Van Gogh, Angelique Kidjo: Hong Kong Arts Festival 2024 line-up

Highlights of the 2024 festival have been revealed, including ballet from Teatro alla Scala, a full-length The Peony Pavilion, Peter Brook’s last theatre production and Bavarian State Opera doing Richard Strauss.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Superstar Russian ballerina dazzles in Hong Kong Arts Festival performances

Natalia Osipova’s dazzling dancing and demonstrations of astounding flexibility lit up her Hong Kong Arts Festival performances, while the fearless male guest dancers also impressed.

Russian superstar ballerina Natalia Osipova performs “Two Feet” as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra’s proud celebration of Cantonese music

Forget the futuristic title “The Stage Door on Mars” given this production – it was very much a tribute to the present-day vibrancy of Cantonese opera and music.

The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra performing “The Stage Door on Mars” at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall as part of the 2023 Hong Kong Arts Festival, with Man Wah and Leung Fei-tung (on elevated stage) singing arias from famous Cantonese operas. Photo: HKCO
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Vixen, opera without orchestra, chorus or stage, engages and frustrates

Silent Opera strips operas to their bare bones. In the case of Vixen, this brings narrative clarity to Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. But the singers still need to deliver some theatre.

Art

How to build an art collection in Hong Kong – according to the experts

Noted collector Henry Tang, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority chairman, and 3812 Gallery co-founder Calvin Hui point the way for potential patrons

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Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov recital – soprano dazzles in Russian songs

Soprano shows the exceptionally rich tone of her voice but also delicacy and astounding control, in a programme of Russian and other songs, ably accompanied by her husband and pianist Rachel Cheung.

Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, her husband, Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov and accompanist Rachel Cheung from Hong Kong receive the audience’s applause during their recital at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on March 9. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Pavel Kolesnikov and Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s resounding ‘Rach 3’

Russian pianist’s distinctive interpretation and devotion to blending the solo part’s lines with the playing of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta marked their performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3.

Art

How is artsy members club Soho House Hong Kong nurturing the city’s creatives?

For one thing, the exclusive hang-out is going street, partnering once more with the HKwalls to bring a splash of colour – and world class artists – to Central and Sheung Wan

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Beyond Art Basel: 11 best cultural events in Hong Kong this month

From a Coco Chanel-inspired ballet to HKIFF’s Godard retrospective and a Leslie Cheung tribute at the brand new HKT x WestK Popfest music festival

Coco Chanel show. Photo: Handout
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | New musical about modern China’s ‘founding father’ Sun Yat-sen is flawed

Yat-sen, a musical about modern China’s ‘founding father’ Sun Yat-sen, is an impressive showcase of Hong Kong talent, but is tainted by its chauvinistic interpretation of history.

A scene from Yat-sen featuring the “Four Bandits” influential in the 1911 Chinese revolution. The musical showcases impressive Hong Kong talent, but is tainted by its chauvinistic interpretation of history. Photo: Carmen So
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | A ‘Death and the Maiden’ for the ages from Esmé Quartet in Hong Kong debut

Superb artistry, depth of interpretation and the sheer joy of the playing from young South Korea-born female musicians and local stand-in violist marked the Esmé Quartet’s concert.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | The Book of Water: melodrama reinvented as a TED Talk for the stage

Linking personal fate to environmental crisis, The Book of Water starring Samuel West live and his father, Timothy West, on film is a polished multimedia spectacle.

Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Beethoven on period instruments a mixed success in cavernous venue

The vastness of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre challenged the Insula period instrument orchestra, but Chinese pianist Yuan Sheng, playing a period piano, excelled.

Laurence Equilbey, conductor and founder of the Insula orchestra and Accentus choir, which performed an an all-Beethoven concert as part of the 2023 Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival
Performing arts in Hong Kong

Review | Pianist Bruce Liu shows artistry without limits in thrilling Hong Kong debut

Canadian shows dexterous touch, precision and uncanny maturity in two Chopin works, silky skills in Ravel’s impressionistic Miroirs, and mischief and fireworks in a demanding work by Liszt.

Canadian pianist Bruce Liu receives applause from the audience during his recital on February 15, 2023 at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, part of the 51st Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival
Performing arts in Hong Kong

‘The Blackpink of classical music’: Korean string quartet on their goals

The four Korean women of the award-winning Esmé Quartet make their Hong Kong debut this month. First violin Bae Won-hee talks about their tight bond and what they hope to achieve together.

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Performing arts in Hong Kong

Conductor on period instruments’ value, Cate Blanchett’s name-check in Tár

Laurence Equilbey, named by Blanchett’s Lydia Tár in Oscar-nominated film as one of the women who paved her way as a conductor, explains why she founded a period instrument ensemble.

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