Hong Kong – LCSD’s “Tan Dun WE-Festival” brings West-East arts and cultural convergence to Hong Kong in December (with photos)

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department will present the “Tan Dun WE-Festival”, curated by Tan Dun, Hong Kong’s Ambassador for Cultural Promotion and internationally renowned composer and conductor, in December. Featuring musicians, dancers and ensembles from the Mainland, Hong Kong and around the world, this West-East artistic feast will reveal brand-new approaches to music, dance and visual arts, turning the city into an international stage for cultural and arts exchanges. The Festival will also attract people from both East and West to gather in the city, showcasing the essence of Hong Kong’s East-meets-West cultural DNA.

     The programme brief is as follows:

“Tan Dun WE-Festival”: Opera and Dance Theatre
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Date and time: December 6 and 7 (Wednesday and Thursday), 7.30pm
Venue: Grand Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
Ticket prices: $150 to $400

     Audiences can enjoy an opera and dance theatre filled with primitivism and ritualistic elements. The opening piece of the performance, “Shaman Tea Ritual”, originates from the ritual music and dance of a Yunnan ethnic minority. It echoes the final part of the programme, “The Rite of Spring”, a dance theatre choreographed and directed by the renowned choreographer Yang Liping, paying tribute to the century-old Western classic by famous composer Stravinsky through oriental dance and body language. The opening piece is followed by Tan Dun’s two mini operas “Deer of Nine Colours” and “Heart Sutra” which is a pairing of Western symphony with oriental Buddhist spirit, exemplifying the vocal power and the ancient music of Dunhuang that transcend language barriers, to reminisce about the thousand years of Chinese culture. Under the baton of Tan Dun, members of the New York Bard Percussion Quartet, young pipa player Han Yan, and dancers of the Peacock Contemporary Dance Company, Dazhu and Jinhua, will take part in the performances, while local young soprano Candice Chung and pianists Rachel Cheung and Tsang Hin-yat are also lined up to perform in the programme for cross-regional arts and cultural exchanges and collaborations.
 
“Tan Dun WE-Festival”: “Tan Dun: BACH Rock & Hanggai – BACH Meets GENGHIS KHAN”
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Date and time: December 9 and 10 (Saturday and Sunday), 7.30pm
Venue: Grand Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre
Ticket prices: $200 to $450

     Together with renowned Mongolian rock band Hanggai and the Hunan-Changsha Symphony Orchestra, Tan Dun will take the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, dubbed “the father of classical music”, as a medium for a dialogue with the Mongolian rock music along with digital animation and multimedia technology. It will give audiences an exceptional auditory feast that connects East and West, past and future, as well as technology and nature ecology. The music pieces such as “The Rising Sun”, ” Invention – Four Seasons” and “Grassland My Beautiful Home” possesses an embodied connection to the landscapes of grassland, mountain and river that will deliver the message of protecting nature to the theatre-goers. In addition, singer-songwriter Tan Weiwei will perform the work including “Old Song” and “Crying Song”, “Water Song” and “Qin Song” in a symphonic setting with rustic traditional oriental vocal style.

     Tickets for the above programmes are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For telephone bookings, please call 3166 1288. Package discounts will be available for standard ticket purchase with both “Opera and Dance Theatre” and “Tan Dun: BACH Rock & Hanggai – When BACH Meets GENGHIS KHAN” programmes. For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2268 7323 / 2268 7321 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/music/groups_1635.html.