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One of Hong Kong’s flagship orchestras, Hong Kong Sinfonietta has achieved significant local and international recognition for its passionate performances and innovative programming which have brought music closer to the community.
Since 1999, Hong Kong Sinfonietta has collaborated with an illustrious array of international musicians and groups, including in recent years Nicolas Altstaedt, JeanEfflam Bavouzet, Vilde Frang, Ilya Gringolts, Martin Helmchen, James MacMillan, Sergei Nakariakov, Krzysztof
Sitkovetsky, Antoine Tamestit, The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. A regular participant at all the major festivals in Hong Kong including the Hong Kong Arts Festival and French May Arts Festival, the orchestra also partners regularly with Hong Kong Ballet in their staged productions.
As an avid believer of keeping music alive and contemporary, Hong Kong Sinfonietta – the Venue Partner of the Hong Kong City Hall since 2009 – performs yearround with about 100 performances a season, presenting not only standard orchestral repertoire but premières of works by living composers. Over the years, the orchestra has commissioned over 90 new works, as well as launching in 2006 the HKS Artist Associate scheme, which provides a platform for intensive collaboration with local artists from different arts disciplines to expand the horizon of classical music.
The orchestra has enjoyed many triumphs with crossgenre productions such as A Soldier’s Story, The Passage Beyond in Concert and Pica Pica Choose, which melded dance and theatre with music to wide critical acclaim. It also became the first local orchestra to appear on the cinema screen in 2020 with its groundbreaking Back On Stage concert film series, and in 2021 further ventured into the cinematic world by co-curating the “Life is Art” film festival with MOViE MOViE.
Always breaking down barriers between music and the general audience, Hong Kong Sinfonietta holds speciallydesigned concert series for different audiences and age groups, including Good Music for Babies/Kids, Know Your Classical Music, Short-cut to Classical Music and HKS McDull Music Project, and recently filmed the Tiny Galaxy Concerts online series featuring chamber music performances recorded in Hong Kong. The orchestra’s discography includes CDs of works by Chinese composers on HUGO, and three double-CD albums This is Classical
Music on DECCA which have been awarded Platinum and Gold Records. In 2018, The Passage Beyond in Concert by Leon Ko, was released on DECCA.
Thriving on its strong local roots combined with an ambitious international vision, Hong Kong Sinfonietta has been invited to perform on tour in North America in Canada and New York City; in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in South America; in Europe at prestigious festivals in France including Festival International de Piano La Roque d’Anthéron and Festival de Musique Menton, in Germany at Gezeitenkonzerte Ostfriesland, at Beethoven Easter Festival in Poland, in Switzerland at Tonhalle Zürich, Geneva Victoria Hall and Fribourg, at festivals in Italy including the Festival Pianistico Internazionale di Brescia e Bergamo, in Portugal at the Marvão International Music Festival, and in Austria, Spain and Lithuania; in China at China Shanghai International Arts Festival (Expo 2010), in Beijing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, in Shenzhen at The Lian Hua Shan Glades Music Festival; in Japan at La Folle Journée and Asia Orchestra Week; in Korea at the Tongyeong International Music Festival and in Singapore at the Esplanade, and at National Concert Hall Taipei and National Taichung Theater.
To nurture and create opportunities for the next generation of artists, the orchestra successfully held two editions of the Hong Kong International Conducting Competition in 2018 and 2023, and is bringing back the “Auditions On Stage” series for the piano in 2025, following the acclaimed first edition for the violin in 2022.
Hong Kong Sinfonietta has thrived under the leadership of Yip Wing-sie, one of Asia’s foremost conductors who was the orchestra’s Music Director from 2002-2020, and has been Music Director Emeritus from 2020 onwards. In April 2023, conductor, violinist, chamber musician and pedagogue Christoph Poppen took on the post of Music Director, while continuing his highly successful collaboration with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra as Principal Conductor, the Israel Chamber Orchestra as Principal Guest Conductor, and the Marvão International Music Festival as Artistic Director.
香港小交響樂團有限公司為註冊之慈善團體。
The Hong Kong Sinfonietta Limited is a registered charity.
香港灣仔譚臣道 98 號運盛大廈 3 樓
3/F Winsan Tower, 98 Thomson Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
麥萊自 1998 年於 BBC 逍遙音樂節作獨奏首演後，已成 為該音樂節的常客，最近與簡納 - 曼遜家族及作家莫普 格合作，呈獻了一個特別版本的聖桑《動物嘉年華》。
麥萊也經常獲邀於英國及挪威各地音樂節中演出。
2019 年麥萊獲邀擔任慶祝登陸月球 50 周年的「飛躍阿 波羅」計劃的藝術顧問。
Alasdair Malloy is a creative musician crossing musical boundaries, working as a concert presenter, percussionist, glass harmonica player, programme deviser and arranger. Presenting a celebrated catalogue of innovative family and children’s concerts across the globe, Malloy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of the West of Scotland in 2017 for his contribution to music and education.
Malloy’s extensive programme catalogue covers all school subjects as well as a host of family favourites, from magic and mystery to film, food and travel. He works closely with a number of the UK’s top orchestras including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Swan, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, Sinfonia Viva and Oxford Philharmonic.
Abroad, Malloy works in Asia with Hong Kong Sinfonietta every season and regularly with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. The première of his highly acclaimed Bugs!! won the National Silver Award for Best Performance in China for children in 2005. In Europe, he appears with the Orchestre d’Auvergne, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Dublin.
Former Principal Percussion and member of the BBC Concert Orchestra for 39 years, as well as a regular soloist, Malloy often incorporates percussion-inspired features within his own programmes. He is also active as a percussionist in other genres and regularly arranges, records and performs with celebrated artists including Jarvis Cocker and Scott Walker. His 20th
year of working with Mike Oldfield culminated in a performance at the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony.
As Britain’s leading glass harmonica specialist, Malloy has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Aldeburgh Festival, St John’s Smith Square and Kings Place in London, and St George’s Bristol. He premiered David Horne’s Vapours and Fireflies with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra respectively. In 2014, he performed at the opening of the ICE Kraków Congress Centre, an occasion for which the noted Polish film composer Zbigniew Preisner composed a work specifically. Malloy is regularly invited to record with acclaimed artists such as Icelandic pop star Björk and can be heard on numerous film soundtracks: two Harry Potter films, the BAFTA and Oscar-winning Hollywood blockbuster Gravity and most recently Aeronauts. In 2019, he was invited to perform at Chihuly Nights, an exhibition that transformed Kew Gardens, showcasing American artist Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures.
Having made his BBC Proms solo début in 1998, Malloy has returned to the festival numerous times including a recent collaboration with the KannehMason siblings and author Michael Morpurgo for a special presentation of Saint-Saens’ The Carnival of the Animals. Other notable festival appearances include Bury St Edmunds, Chester, Henley, Arundel, Lichfield and Risør in Norway.
In 2019, Malloy was appointed Artistic Advisor on the “Apollo: One Giant Leap” project celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, working closely with composer Geoff Edge and Dorchester Arts.
A leading young conductor in Hong Kong, Vivian Ip was appointed Associate Conductor of Hong Kong Sinfonietta from the 2023/2024 season, where she has presented a series of family concerts as well as worked closely with guest artists and musicians.
Praised by the winner of the “Best Conductor” Grammy Award John Nelson – “Conducting is like breathing for you. Bright talent you have!”, Ip received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music (First Class Honours) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. With an Associate Instructorship and the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship for Overseas Studies, she received her Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting at the Indiana University Bloomington. She graduated in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, receiving the highest award of the year, under the supervision of Uroš Lajovic and Johannes Wildner.
Ip has guest conducted at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Musica Viva Hong Kong and Hong Kong Grand Opera, and was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2016-2018, where she assisted its Music Director Jaap van Zweden and Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long, as well as overseas conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit, Vassily Sinaisky and Lawrence Foster. In 2018, she led the Xing-er Symphony Orchestra in Guangzhou to the Gold Award at the 6 th World Orchestra Festival in Vienna, where she also received the Talented Conductor Prize.
As an opera conductor, Ip has conducted operas such as Carmen, Die Zauberflöte, Der Fliegende Holländer, Norma, L’Elisir d’Amore etc. In 2023, Ip co-founded ANIMA Ensemble in promoting contemporary chamber operas and musical theatre works, premiering Philip Glass’ The Book of Longing in Hong Kong in 2024. As a
choral conductor, she was the Music Director of Chorus Delicti Wien for 7 years and worked with numerous local and international choirs.
A recipient of the Hong Kong Outstanding Young Musician Award in 2024, Ip currently teaches Conducting, as well as Practical Studies in Musicianship and Choral Conducting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a part-time faculty member of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Prepare to blast off on an extraordinary adventure with Alasdair, Vivian and Hong Kong Sinfonietta that will take you beyond the stars! We promise you an unforgettable musical journey filled with surprises, as we explore the wonders of space and encounter fascinating characters along the way.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Arranged by Alasdair Malloy
Also Sprach Zarathustra:
Introduction
This is one of the most familiar openings in all orchestral music which represents the emergence of the sun with majestic trumpet fanfares and dramatic chords. This piece gained popularity after being featured in Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking film 2001: A Space Odyssey, adding a sense of grandeur to scenes of Earth from space.
Richard Wagner (1812-1883)
Arranged by William Ryden (1939-2018)
Die Walküre: Ride of the
Valkyries
In Norse legend, the Valkyries carried the souls of departed warriors to the home of the Gods, Valhalla. Richard Wagner gave us this vivid depiction of the Valkyries in his series of operas, The Ring.
Arranged by Calvin Custer (1939-1998)
Star Trek Through the Years
In the 1960s, mankind first left the Earth to travel in space, and by the end of the decade men had walked on the moon. Everyone thought that a new future of space travel and exploration had begun, and in 1966 a new television series, set far enough in the future to make us believe that intelligent life existed on worlds very similar to our own, was launched. Star Trek is one of the most influential science fiction series in history, and the original TV theme by Alexander Courage still has a futuristic and optimistic feel about it.
Johann Strauss Jr (1825-1899)
Perpetuum Mobile
The idea of perpetual motion, movement that goes on forever without using up energy, inspired many composers particularly in the 19th century, and their pieces consist of a very fast sequence of notes that never seem to come to rest. The first performance of this piece took place in a large hall in Vienna where Johann Strauss Jr and his two brothers, who were also composers, each took turns conducting three large orchestras with the piece being swapped between them over and over again!
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Clair de Lune
The French composer Claude Debussy is often referred to as the first impressionist composer, signifying how music followed painting in setting out to give an impression of something rather than a true to life representation. The French title means “moonlight” and the music seems to give a translucent impression of how moonlight illuminates things on Earth at nighttime.
Gustav Holst
Arranged by Alasdair Malloy
The Planets: Mars
Holst’s famous suite The Planets matches a movement for each of the planets with their astrological and mythical connections rather than their physical properties. Mars was the Roman God of War and Holst uses a relentless rhythm set over five beats to maintain an aggressive character throughout. The music seems to depict the heat of battle with the brass instruments adding a militaristic tone.
Tetsuya Komoro
Moonlight
Densetsu
This piece, also known as Moonlight Legend, was the opening theme song for the popular Japanese anime television series Sailor Moon which ran from 1992 until 2023. The series follows the adventures of a schoolgirl called Usagi Tsukino as she transforms into Sailor Moon to search for a magical Silver Crystal. She leads a group of 10 friends all named after the planets in our Solar System and has help from her friend Tuxedo Mask and her cat Luna.
John Williams (born 1932)
Arranged by Alasdair Malloy
Star Wars:
The Imperial March
When John Williams started writing the music for the very first Star Wars film he borrowed an idea which had been used in many operas – each of the main characters would have their own musical theme which would always be heard when they appeared or were about to appear. The Imperial March is instantly recognisable even from the rhythms which are heard before the tune itself, and it represents someone who was once a heroic Jedi Knight but then switched to the dark side of the Force and became a Sith Lord.
Gustav Holst
Arranged by Alasdair Malloy
The Planets:
Jupiter
This is another movement from Holst’s The Planets suite, representing Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity. It is very influenced by English folk song with a slow moving majestic theme at its heart and jubilant dance-like episodes surrounding that.
John Williams (born 1932)
Arranged by Alasdair Malloy
Star Wars: Rey’s Theme
Rey is the central character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and composer John Williams chose not to give her a hero’s theme so much as an adventurer’s theme, signifying the long journey that she ends up setting out on. The music, like Rey, has a definite inner strength as well as a feeling of innocence and undiscovered potential. In September 2024, astronaut Sarah Gillis played this theme on the violin on board the spaceship Polaris Dawn as it orbited the Earth.
Edward Elgar
The Wand of Youth Suite No 1:
Sun Dance
The English composer Edward Elgar wrote some music for a children’s play called The Wand of Youth when he was 12 years old. Later in his life, he rewrote some of the music and arranged it into two orchestral suites. In this bright movement he suggests flashes of morning sunlight rousing people from their sleep.
George Frideric Handel
Arranged by Alasdair Malloy
Solomon: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
This instrumental movement is from an opera about King Solomon and depicts a state visit from the Queen of Sheba (also known as the Queen of Egypt and Ethiopia), who is amazed by the splendour of the royal court. It is very energetic music and the perfect piece to help us perfect our skills at spaceship flying!
Mahito Yokota
Koji Kondo (born 1961)
Arranged by Alasdair Malloy
Super Mario Galaxy
Nintendo revealed their unlikely hero, the Italian plumber Mario, as a character in the game Donkey Kong in 1981 before he went on to have his own series of games starting in 1983. There have now been over 200 games featuring Mario, and Super Mario Galaxy from 2007 is often considered to be one of the best video games of all time. It was the first to have an orchestral soundtrack and the extract you will hear today, including a dramatic march and an elegant waltz, shows how effective that was. This popular theme reappears in other Super Mario games.
John Williams (born 1932)
Arranged by Alasdair Malloy
Star Wars: Duel of the Fates
This theme was first heard during the epic lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and has become one of the most recognisable themes from the films after the main title itself. A fast repeated passage low down in the orchestra underpins a hymn-like statement from the brass, suggesting some sort of religious or spiritual significance to the action itself. An extended version of this returns during the end credits for the film
