presents
02.10.2021 (Saturday, 4:30pm & 8:00pm)
Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall
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On Sunday 02 October 2021 at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, 4:30pm and 8:00pm, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong presents The Bonn Man, a dramatic musical portrayal of Ludwig van Beethoven’s life presented in historical costumes with stage design and lighting. Created and produced by playwright Leanne Nicholls, The Bonn Man captures Beethoven’s monumental rise to the world’s greatest composer through the eyes of his pupil and assistant Ferdinand Ries. Son of one of Beethoven’s childhood music mentors in Bonn, Ries follows Beethoven to Vienna where he gives a gripping account of the great composer’s life and struggles with loneliness and hearing loss. The performance climaxes with Beethoven’s ninth symphony, a commission from London which Ries was instrumental in obtaining, and a masterpiece which changed the course of music history forever.
City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong conducted by Colin Touchin will perform excerpts from Beethoven’s symphonies No. 3,5,6,8 & 9 and the bombastic Wellington’s Victory with its musical depictions of canon fire. Micah Sandt, a multi-talented local actor, singer and pianist, will perform the role of Ferdinand Ries while Korean pianist Yoonie Han (currently assistant Professor of Piano at the Hong Kong Baptist University) takes to the stage as the secret inspiration behind some of Beethoven’s most impassioned solo piano works. Set and lighting designer Ernesto Maurice Corpus dresses the concert stage to authentic effect.
Tickets priced at $480, $380, $280, with half-price concessions for full-time students, senior citizens, people with disabilities and minder, and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients, are available from 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 2864 2151 or email [email protected]. The performance is presented in English and lasts for approximately 70 minutes without an intermission. The programme is family-friendly with the exception of children aged five and below.
For images, artist interviews and further MEDIA ENQUIRIES please contact Ms. Grace Wong (Tel: 9766 7826/ Email: [email protected]) or Ms. Mandy Law (Tel: 9611 5027/ Email: [email protected]).
Symphonies No.3, 5, 6, 8 & 9
Concerto for Piano No.4
Contredanse No.6
String Quartet No.10, Harp
Sonata for Piano No.14, Moonlight
Sonata for Piano, No.23, Appassionata
Aria: Mit Mädeln sich vertragen
Wellington’s Victory
(excerpts only)
Micah Xavier Sandt trained as an actor at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London and holds an MFA in composition from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. His recent credits include the rerun of his one-man show Gweilo with Pants Productions, a South China tour of Smokey Joe’s Café with Hong Kong 3 Arts Musical Institute and And Now, Maestro! with Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Micah was born in Taiwan to French and Finnish parents. He moved to Hong Kong when he was three and studied at a local Chinese primary school. After studying abroad he returned to Hong Kong where he is currently working as a freelance composer, arranger, musical director, performer, and teacher.
Praised by the Cincinnati Inquirer for her "poetic phrasing and heavenly singing melodies", Korean pianist Yoonie Han has won the highest accolades for her performances in major concert halls around the world. She is a first-prize winner of several piano competitions including the Washington International Competition for Piano, the Fulbright Concerto Competition, the World Piano Competition, the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition and the Juilliard School of Music’s Gina Bachauer and Chopin Piano Competitions. She has also garnered major prizes at the International Maj Lind Piano Competition in Helsinki, the Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize from the Piano Academy Eppan and the Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competition. Yoonie Han has performed with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Banff Festival Orchestra, Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali (Milano), the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey. She received her Bachelor Degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, her Masters of Music degree from The Juilliard School of Music, and her Doctorate from the Stony Brook University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Piano at Hong Kong Baptist University. Yoonie Han is a Steinway & Sons Concert & Recording Artist.
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, Michala Petri, 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, Mao Yuan and Richard Harvey, and by Hong Kong’s top composers at Musicarama and the Hong Kong Contemporary Music Festival. Recordings include four internationally acclaimed releases on the NAXOS, Orchid Classics, Forgotten Records and OUR Recordings labels. CCOHK’s mission to cultivate young audiences for music in Hong Kong has led to the creation of several original and 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 and was succeeded by the Armenian conductor and pianist Vahan Mardirossian in 2019.
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