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On 01 November 2019 at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, 8:00pm, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) presents the Grammy award-winning American guitarist Sharon Isbin in an exquisite programme brimming with Spanish flavours and Rococo charm. Hailed as a master colourist and a true trailblazer of the guitar, Sharon Isbin will showcase her artistry in Rodrigo’s exquisitely beautiful Fantasia para un Gentilhombre. She will also be joined by CCOHK’s string principals for a rendition of Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet which culminates in an exhilarating Fandango movement to be played on castanets by the legendary Flamenco artist Nina Corti. The evening concludes with a special dance realization of Bartók’s gypsy-fuelled Romanian Folk Dances by Nina Corti followed by Halffter’s zealous and colourfully orchestrated Sinfonietta conducted by Andrew Sewell.
Praised by The Boston Globe as “the pre-eminent guitarist of our times”, Sharon Isbin has performed in the world’s finest concert halls and has appeared with almost 200 orchestras worldwide. She was the first guitarist ever to win the ARD Music Competition in Munich in 1976 and has just been named by Musical America as “Instrumentalist of the Year 2020” – the first guitarist ever to receive this prestigious award. She has performed at the White House by invitation of President Barack Obama in 2009. She is also committed to education and is the Founding Director of the Guitar Department at the renowned Juilliard School in New York.
Born into a family of professional musicians, Nina Corti has a special gift for choreographing dances to famous classical works by composers such as Ravel, Bartok, Falla, Boccherini and Telemann, thereby creating a unique style of Spanish dancing and Flamenco. A star performer in her own right, she has performed and choreographed works in collaboration with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra.
Tickets to the concert priced at $400, $300, $220 with half-price concessions for full-time students, senior citizens, people with disabilities and minder, and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients are now available at all URBTIX outlets. For ticketing enquiries, call 3761 6661; for credit card telephone booking, call 2111 5999; for internet booking, visit www.urbtix.hk; for programme or other enquiries, call 2861 2156 or email [email protected].
Additionally, Sharon Isbin will give a Guitar Masterclass on 29 October 2019 (Tuesday) from 6:30pm-9:00pm at Hong Kong International Music Academy, G03, 33 Marble Road, North Point. Observer tickets priced at $100 may be booked via Ms. Betty Fung at 2864 2158 / [email protected].
For photos, artist interviews and further MEDIA ENQUIRIES please contact CCOHK at 2864 2151 or via email at [email protected]
More about Sharon Isbin
Multiple Grammy Award-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin has performed in the world’s finest concert halls and has appeared with almost 200 orchestras worldwide. Acclaimed by Fanfare Magazine as “one of our century’s best musicians”, she won first prize at the Toronto Guitar Competition in 1975, was a winner of the Madrid Queen Sofia Competition, and was the first guitarist ever to win the ARD Music Competition in Munich. She is also the recipient of the Echo Klassik Award in Germany and Guitar Player Magazine’s Best Classical Guitarist Award. Sharon Isbin features on the soundtrack to Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed, was invited to perform at the White House by President Obama, and performed at Ground Zero for the first internationally televised 9/11 memorial concert. A documentary about her career entitled Sharon Isbin: Troubadour won the 2015 ASCAP Television Broadcast Award and has received millions of views abroad and on over 200 PBS stations across the USA. In addition to giving sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, other recent highlights include a tour to 21 cities in the USA of her Guitar Passions programme, and collaborations with Sting and Amjad Ali Khan. A work was commissioned for her by Carnegie Hall and she has commissioned and premiered over 80 works by major composers including Tan Dun and John Corigliano. Her extensive discography of 30 CDs includes Alma Española which was honored by a 2018 Grammy for Producer of the Year. Her Latin Grammy-nominated disc with the New York Philharmonic is the only recording the orchestra has ever made with guitar. Sharon Isbin’s guitar mentors include Andrés Segovia, Oscar Ghiglia and Alirio Díaz. She also studied with the great Bach scholar and keyboard artist Rosalyn Tureck with whom she collaborated on landmark editions/recordings of the Bach lute suites. She contributes to guitar education as founding director of the guitar department at The Juilliard School and at the Aspen Music Festival.
For more information visit www.sharonisbin.com/
City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) holds a unique position as one of Asia’s leading chamber orchestras. Members are professional musicians experienced in playing diverse styles ranging from Baroque and classical to East-West crossover, tango, Bollywood and jazz. Since its establishment in 1999 CCOHK has performed with many world-class artists including Sir James Galway, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Dame Emma Kirkby, Sir Thomas Allen, Sir Neville Marriner, Christian Lindberg, Sarah Chang, Philippe Entremont, Julian Lloyd Webber, Edgar Meyer, Branford Marsalis, Richard Galliano and The King’s Singers. The orchestra has also collaborated with celebrities including Hayley Westenra, Richard Clayderman, Robin Gibb, Dame Edna Everage and Canto-pop stars Sandy Lam, Hins Cheung and Hacken Lee. Additional highlights include collaborations with the Vienna Boys Choir, The American Boychoir, the Warsaw Boys Choir, the Swedish Voices Chamber Choir and Choeur Britten. On tour CCOHK has been invited to perform in Italy, Taipei, Beijing, Chengdu and at the 20th China Shanghai International Arts Festival. At home CCOHK is in high demand with performing engagements for Hong Kong Ballet, Le French May Arts Festival, RTHK Radio 4, the World Harp Congress and The Hong Kong International Piano Competition. In support of contemporary music CCOHK has staged world premieres of works by Daniel Binelli, Dobrinka Tabakova, Detlev Glanert, Mao Yuan and Alexander Prior, and by Hong Kong’s top composers at Musicarama and the Hong Kong Contemporary Music Festival. CDs include an internationally acclaimed release on OUR Recordings featuring the world premiere of Richard Harvey’s Concerto Incantanto with Danish recorder virtuoso Michala Petri. CCOHK’s mission to cultivate young audiences for classical music in Hong Kong has led to the creation of several original fully-staged productions incorporating actors. These include Magnificent Mozart, The Star Bach, Vivaldi Unmasked and Bug Symphony which won the Public Choice Award at the YAMawards in Portugal 2017. At the helm of CCOHK’s artistic and executive planning is CCOHK’s founder Leanne Nicholls, herself a prize-winning performer who was awarded a commendation certificate from the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government in 2009. French conductor Jean Thorel served as chief conductor from 2008 to 2016. Armenian conductor and virtuoso pianist Vahan Mardirossian was appointed chief conductor in September 2019.
www.ccohk.com / www.facebook.com/ccohk / https://www.instagram.com/ccohk1/
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