Musicus Fest Celebrates A Dynamic Decade With Eleven Concerts Throughout Hong Kong

Musicus Society announces the tenth anniversary season of Musicus Fest, which features eleven concerts over four weekends from 5 to 26 November 2022, throughout the city of Hong Kong. A meeting point for artists from across the world, Musicus Fest brings musicians from Hong Kong, Italy, Germany, Canada, France, and Poland together for an international celebration of cross-cultural musicianship.

To commemorate the annual festival Musicus Fest's tenth anniversary, Musicus Society will launch Musicus Soloists Hong Kong (MSHK) at the festival this year. This extraordinary ensemble makes their debut on 26 November, the final concert of the season. Directed and initiated by internationally-renowned cellist and Artistic Director Trey Lee, MSHK is comprised of some of the city's top next-generation artists from all over the world. MSHK is focused on becoming a leading chamber ensemble representing Hong Kong globally.

"On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of our festival, Musicus Society is thrilled to be launching MSHK, an ensemble dedicated to presenting music at the highest level," says Artistic Director Trey Lee. "While we reflect on the festival's ten years of featuring great performances in Hong Kong and abroad, we are also looking forward to the next decade of growth and achievements."

Under the renewed sponsorship from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the popular Musicus Heritage concert series returns to Musicus Fest this coming season with the project name 'Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories,' featuring music composers and artists from other art forms to create new works, bringing in new perspectives on historical sites. Musicus Fest presents seven heritage concerts in two unique sites, Tai Kwun and Tao Fong Shan. The Tao Fong Shan performance incorporates newly created art-pieces by porcelain artists Tso Chi-hung and Martina Tso, designed specifically to be experienced during Musicus Fest.

In addition to featuring celebrated overseas artists, Musicus Fest champions young local talent throughout the festival. On 19 November, Musicus Fest presents "Next Generation Virtuosi," a showcase featuring Musicus Society's 2020 Young Artist Audition winner Jeremy Hao.

Programs of the 2022 Musicus Fest Include:

Children's Concert: Marco Polo and the Carnival Instruments (5 Nov) | Concert Hall, HK City Hall | 7:30 PM

Integrating Western and Chinese music with live action and comedy skits, this year's Children's Concert rolls out a whole new chapter of Marco Polo's exciting adventures. The special interactive show features music by top local musicians including Chopin International Competition Prizewinner Colleen Lee, erhu and pipa masters Wong Chi-chung and Mavis Lam, hilarious commedia dell'arte characters from Italy, and a marvelous comic ensemble cast of actors and opulent Venetian carnival costumes. With its mix of Chinese and Western musical traditions, its blend of music and humour, masks and instruments, this spectacle is sure to delight all ages.

Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories Concerts (12-13 November) | JC Cube, Tai Kwun | 7:30 PM on 12 November and 2:30 PM on 13 November

Trey Lee brings together an outstanding group of musicians, including 2021 Musicus Young Artist Audition winner violinist Fan Hiu Sing and versatile French violist Aurélie Entringer, for this Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories series of concerts in the historic surroundings of Tai Kwun, the former Victoria Prison. The theme of the series is "Perseverance," and features music by a number of great composers who each battled hardship during their lives--Arensky and his addictions to alcohol and gambling; Messiaen, who was interned in a prison camp in the Second World War; Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, who grappled with mental and physical illnesses; and Dohnányi, who went to great lengths to save Jewish musicians during the Holocaust.

Alongside these musical stories from the past is the world premiere of Musicus' Call for Scores winner Eason Chan's new composition, which charts the history of Tai Kwun's prison chapel in various incarnations. The piece showcases the historical setting of Tai Kwun, bringing the former prison to life, and it serves as a fitting metaphor for Hong Kong's spirit of perseverance.

Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories Concerts (19 November) | Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre | Short Concerts and Guided Tours Beginning at 12:15 PM

Inspired by the fascinating history of Tao Fong Shan and its Norwegian missionary founder Karl Ludvig Reichelt (who had a keen interest in Buddhism), Musicus presents an unprecedented series of concerts at the celebrated heritage site. Naturally, the music of Edvard Grieg figures prominently on the program; one such work, Peer Gynt, chronicles a journey from the Norwegian mountains to the North African desert, a fitting musical metaphor of Reichelt's own journey from Europe to the Far East. Other works to be performed by local talents and overseas masters such as Juno Award-winner Elissa Lee are also inspired by travel including Dvořák's journey to America and Kodály's expeditions around rural Europe collecting examples of folk music.

Tao Fong Shan has hosted dialogues between Christians and Buddhists in the past and is also a center of preservation for the art of Cantonese hand-painted porcelain. Thus, the story of Reichelt's journey will be further highlighted by a special exhibition of a selection of these vessels specially created for the concerts by the revered porcelain master Tso Chi-hung and his daughter Martina Tso, with the subjects of the paintings inspired by this historical meeting of East and West. With a guided tour of the complex preceding the music and the exhibition, this promises to be a most remarkable experience for all.

Next Generation Virtuosi (19 November) | Theatre, HK City Hall | 8 PM

Musicus Society's 2020 Young Artist Audition winner Jeremy Hao is one of Hong Kong's major emerging music talents. Having studied at Mannes, The Juilliard School, and the Yale School of Music, he has participated in distinguished festivals such as the Juilliard ChamberFest and has worked closely with pianists Joseph Kalichstein and Jerome Lowenthal, violinists Daniel Phillips and Laurie Smukler, as well as members of the esteemed Borromeo and Shanghai String Quartets.

Musicus Fest 10th Anniversary Concert (26 November) | Concert Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Centre | 8 PM

Celebrate a landmark moment for Musicus Society: ten memorable years since the inaugural Musicus Fest! This fantastic program of music showcases future stars including Zach Cheong Hoi-leong, First Prize winner of the 19th International Chopin Piano Competition in ASIA and winner of Musicus Society's 2022 Young Artist Audition; as well as Musicus Soloists Hong Kong (MSHK), a new ensemble with guest leader Maria Włoszczowska - winner of the XXI Leipzig International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition - and composed of some of the city's top next-generation artists who will gather from all over the world to help mark this memorable occasion. Artistic Director and cellist Trey Lee is the featured soloist for the second half of this program. Recently interviewed by The Strad magazine, Trey's latest season has included performances with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in Germany, online concerts for China's popular international network Phoenix Television and Poly Theaters, and appearances at Finland's Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, among others.

Prior to the official launch of MSHK, the audience gets a rare chance to meet the brand-new ensemble in the intimate setting of an open rehearsal. There is also a special meet-the-artist session at 4 PM with Trey Lee, who will share his insights on the creation of Musicus Soloists Hong Kong.

Tickets for concerts at Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and Tai Kwun are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk), while tickets for concerts at Tao Fong Shan are available at POPTICKET (www.popticket.hk). Musicus Fest 2021 also features a series of free events and master classes open to the public. More information is available at www.musicussociety.org.

Financially supported by the Art Development Matching Grants Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Musicus Society gratefully acknowledges its major sponsors Bank of China (Hong Kong) and The Tung Foundation, its donors and partners for Musicus Fest 2022. The Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories program is funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

Musicus Society was founded in 2010 as a registered Hong Kong charity under the vision of renowned cellist Trey Lee to become an international music organization with quality performances and world-class home-grown artists. It aims to promote cross-cultural collaboration of music internationally between top local and overseas artists through performances and by nurturing the next generation of talent. Apart from the annual Musicus Fest, the Musicus Heritage Community Concert Series enhances the public's knowledge of Hong Kong's culture and history by presenting music programs that reflect their heritage settings. Moreover, Musicus Inspires! Educational program aims to cultivate talents from all social backgrounds, providing training and performance opportunities for young artists and students with great masters. Learn more at www.musicussociety.org.

Musicus Fest is an international partnership for world-class artists to collaborate, showcasing Hong Kong's exceptional artists and working with young talents to bring their artistry to new heights. The Musicus Fest gives Hong Kong artists and students what their counterparts elsewhere have long enjoyed: a chance to elevate themselves to a higher level of artistic excellence through meaningful interaction with distinguished artists from different parts of the world.

Since the launch of Musicus Fest in 2013, over 300 artists from Albania, Canada, Mainland China, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the USA have appeared on stage in Hong Kong, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Bashmet, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Bruno Canino, among others.

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