Founded in 1977, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra has won the accolades as “a leader in Chinese ethnic music” and “a cultural ambassadorof Hong Kong”. It is often invited to perform at famous venues and festivals all over the world, having covered Europe, North America, Asia,Australia and the Arctic Circle to date. It is therefore acclaimed as a leader among full-sized Chinese music ensembles in the internationalarena today. The Orchestra is set up in four sections: bowed-strings, plucked-strings, wind and percussion. The instruments include boththe traditional and the improved, new versions: the bowed-string section has been using the Eco-Huqin series developed by the Orchestrasince 2009. The HKCO performs both traditional Chinese music and contemporary, full-length works in a variety of musical formats andcontents. It also explores new frontiers in music through commissioning over 2,400 new works of various types and styles, whether asoriginal compositions or arrangements.
Apart from regular concerts and activities promoting arts education, the Orchestra has initiated several instrumental festivals, includingthe Hong Kong International Youth Chinese Music Festival, to honour its mission statement that “Music is to be shared”. Together with thecitizens of Hong Kong, the Orchestra has achieved many Guinness World Records for having the largest number of people playing musicalinstruments at the same time. The Hong Kong Drum Festival, which the Orchestra launched in 2003, is now into its 19th year with nointerruption in between, and has become a keenly-anticipated annual cultural event, in 2020, HKCO launched the International DrumGraded Exam with the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority.
Striving to ensure the transmission and development of Chinese music, the Orchestra has organised many symposia and competitions.Notable examples in recent years are ‘The International Composition Prize 2013’ co-organised with the Luxembourg Society forContemporary Music, and the ‘Chinese Music Without Bounds - International Composition Competition’ in 2017. They have been acclaimedas platforms for composers to publish their new works and for musical exchange. The ‘International Conducting Competition for ChineseMusic’, an initiative launched by the HKCO in 2011 and the first ever in the world, has been acclaimed as a milestone in the historicaldevelopment of Chinese music, the competition has been held for 3 times to date. Besides, HKCO organised ‘The International Symposiumfor Chinese Music Conducting’ in 2011 and 2022, experts, scholars and orchestra conductors from various countries and regions attended.
HKCO is actively striving to connect with music lovers digitally via Cloud and linking hearts with activities online, the Orchestra held thefirst ‘HKCO Net Festival’ in 2020 and launched the ‘Net Concert Hall’, the first ever online Chinese Music Gallery in the world, in 2021.The Orchestra also produced music videos series and became the first to incorporate AR technology into its season brochure, embodyingthe trend of merging art, life and technology.
Other accolades and acclaims the Orchestra has won are its achievements in the arts, governance and administration, arts education,marketing and promotion. The Eco-Huqin series which the Orchestra developed has won not only the 4th Ministry of Culture InnovationAward in 2012, but also many other awards presented by various institutions for its green and innovative concepts. They add to theremarkable and highly commendable list of achievements in the history of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.
