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# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
effort to promote the appreciation of music among young people. This educational "concert-go-round" programme for school children has won for the Orchestra, not only thousands of young friends, but also future supporters and audiences.
Another new direction the Orchestra has taken is its commitment to the performances of music by local composers, which will be featured regularly in its concert series. For example, the Hong Kong Philharmonic's contribution to the Hong Kong Arts Festival next month will be an all-Chinese programme, with an orchestral suite by four Hong Kong composers as the highlight.
To actively promote the creation of indigenous music in Hong Kong, the Urban Council Arts awards for 1976 will be given to Hong Kong artists with outstanding achievement in music composition. The interest that will hopefully be stimulated, and the performance of the works by the winners, will help build in terms of music, a cultural identity for Hong Kong,
When the conversion of a room in the City Hall High Block into a Chamber Music Room is completed later in the year, the Council's support to Hong Kong's budding performing artists will be extended to take the form of debut presentations at a purpose-designed venue. With a seating capacity of 120, the Chamber Music Room will be a most suitable environment for recitals, chamber concerts and experimental drama, providing intimacy and immediacy possible only with its optimum size.
The Council's programme of presentations by overseas performers has also been greatly expanded to include artists and groups of international renown. Special efforts are being made to bring their artistic achievements to Hong Kong, which shall establish the City Hall as an even greater hall of fame in the world of the performing arts.
In the field of drama, the Council opened the last season with a festival of drama by the well-known Chinese playwright Tso Yu. The Festival was a joint effort by 14 drama groups which offered, over a period of four weeks, four productions of representative works by the playwright. The enthusiasm generated by the Festival was sustained by the many Cantonese drama productions by local groups which have become regular features in the Council's presentation series.
1976 will be a year when the audience will be even more amply rewarded by the Council's presentation of musicals and operas, sung either in their composers' tongue or in a translated version. Two examples are a Czech opera sung in Mandarin, and a Cantonese opera sung in English. These programmes, together with the regular presentations of Western plays in Cantonese by the Council, will further strengthen the cultural ties among our heterogeneous community.
# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
examples are a Czech opera sung in Mandarin, and a Cantonese opera sung in English. These programmes, together with the regular presentations of Western plays in Cantonese by the Council, will further strengthen the cultural ties among our heterogeneous community.
For cinema enthusiasts, the Council has launched a special film programme, presenting each week a different film by an important director at the City Hall Lecture Room, a programme which may be expanded into an "alternative" cinema for film lovers in Hong Kong. And this is topped by the major film festivals presented at the Theatre during the year.
The scope of the Council's cultural presentation series has been expanded to include the promotion of fine art and science by offering exhibitions which have been for many an aesthetic as well as an educational experience. The subjects of these exhibitions range from the aesthetics of painting and photography to scientific achievement in the form of the moon rock brought back by American astronauts.
The Council has continued its support to many cultural organizations by co-sponsoring their functions and activities and providing assistance in various ways. In particular, the Council will again make a grant to the Hong Kong Arts Festival this year, thus helping to close the gap between the Festival's intake and outgoings, in recognition of the important contribution the Festival is making to the appreciation of the arts in Hong Kong.
## Tsim Sha Tsui Cultural Complex
I tend to take a more optimistic view of the allocation of land for the first phase of the Cultural Complex to be built at the old KCR terminal, will be the construction of a planetarium which is due to be completed by the end of next year. The Council has been actively engaged in the planning for this project, and aims at making it one of the most modern and best-equipped planetaria in the world. The architectural design for the building prepared by the Public Works Department has already won many praises from several planetarium directors in Europe and America for its innovative, as well as functional approach in overcoming the many technical and operational problems involved in such a project.
The Council has earmarked a provision of $20 million for this project.
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