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RECREATION AND THE ARTS
To keep up with trends, the council also operates a report writing scheme under which local specialists in various performing arts forms are invited to report on public perform- ances in Hong Kong.
During the year, the council also organised a logo competition, and took part in the Royal Pacific Cultural Exchange Programme in which performing arts groups from Hong Kong and Honolulu exchanged visits and performances.
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra continued to attract large audiences through its subscription concert series at the City Hall, Tsuen Wan Town Hall and the newly- established Sha Tin Town Hall.
Distinguished artists who appeared with the orchestra included pianists Janina Fialkow- ska, Rudolf Firkusny, Cristina Ortiz, Earl Wild, Jorge Bolet, violinist Aaron Rosand and renowed conductors, Sir Charles Groves, Jorge Mester, Alexander Rahbari and Mu-hai Tang, in addition to the orchestra's own Principal Guest Conductor, Kenneth Jean. Leading contralto and tenor Maureen Forrester and Alberto Remedios performed, for the first time in Hong Kong, Mahler's Das Lied von der Ebde.
Making successful debut performances with the orchestra were musical prodigies from China - Wang Xiao-dong, Li Jian and Hsu Fei-ping.
As in the past four years, the orchestra gave the opening concert of the 1987 Hong Kong Arts Festival. It also provided accompaniment for festival programmes, including Wagner's Flying Dutchman and London Festival Ballet's performance of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton.
The orchestra was also invited to perform at the Silver Jubilee celebration of the City Hall. In building up its repertoire by young local talent, the orchestra commissioned two original pieces by local composers under the sponsorship of the Composers' and Authors' Society.
The orchestra continued its outreach programme by providing demonstrations and educational concerts in schools, community centres as well as popular concert series at the Coliseum and Queen Elizabeth Stadium to help develop an interest in orchestral music. Some 240 000 people were drawn to the performances this year.
Chung Ying Theatre Company
During the year, the Chung Ying Theatre Company consolidated its reputation within the territory.
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Continuing its policy of presenting accessable, bi-lingual theatre in school halls, community centres and more formal theatres in Hong Kong, it began the year with an ambitious Cantonese production of a Feydeau Farce, Spring Fever Hotel. Originally presented in the '87 Hong Kong Arts Festival, Spring Fever Hotel played to packed audiences in the Shouson Theatre, Sha Tin and Tsuen Wan Town Halls and finally the APA Drama Theatre.
Summer productions by the company for younger audiences were: Monster Man and A Dangerous Game, originally presented by the Urban and Regional Councils respectively. These two productions were performed to great success in the same period by two halves of the company, while the actors joined forces in October to give Life's Theatre for the City Hall's Silver Jubilee celebration.
Pinocchio, a Cantonese musical, was the Christmas production in the Arts Centre after a short Regional Council tour in the New Territories. Recent productions, such as Dragon's