HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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renowned conductor Miss Yip Wing-sze, member of the Urban Council's Music Advisory Panel Mr. WAI Sing-fat, as well as Miss HSIN Hsiao-hung, Miss HSIN Hsiao-ling and Mr. CHIN Kwok-wai of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. However, the number of orchestras is reduced from 21 with 1,500 trainees to 14 with less than 1,000 trainees. Let us take district Chinese orchestras as an example. At present only three orchestras are maintained, namely the Hong Kong Island, the New Territories East and the New Territories West orchestras. Trainees in Kwun Tong, Wong Tai Sin and Tseung Kwan O have to travel to Sha Tin for training. As for trainees in Kowloon City, Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po, they have to go to Tsuen Wan for training. The orchestras which still exist merely retain the most basic activities of organizing rehearsals and occasional performances. The annual Hong Kong Youth Chinese Music Festival, Hong Kong Youth String Music Festival and Hong Kong Youth Band Festival which were held in the past have ceased to be organized now. Cancelling these festivals means cancelling the most popular Jingying concerts, overseas master classes, seminars, trainees' performances, performances with famous overseas musicians, bands competitions, etc.
5. Regrettably, another well-received scheme, namely 'Hong Kong Young Musicians Awards', has also been abolished due to lack of funds and manpower.
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It is probably more regrettable that special music training classes previously organized by the Music Office for mentally handicapped persons, former mental patients and students of the Hong Kong Institute of Education have all been cancelled on the ground of funding and manpower. Besides, originally 33 concerts were staged each year for hostels for the elderly, hostels for the mentally handicapped and patients' wards, thus giving 15,000 people who could not go to concerts the opportunity to enjoy music. Now the number of such concerts has been slashed to 20 every year because of insufficient resources.
As regards the work of promoting music and introducing music to the general public, while on one hand, Urban Councillors have encouraged the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra to pay more visits to schools for the purposes of conducting school concerts, the Music Office on the other hand provides only 31% of the requested funding for school concerts due to the cut-back in expenditure. As a result, 253 school concerts, which attracted an audience of 50,000 students each year, have to be reduced to 100 each year. With 1,339 schools in Hong Kong, including 455 secondary schools and 884 primary schools (special schools not included), it is not surprising to hear that a school principal once said, 'no concerts are held despite our waiting for so long.'
District concerts which promote music to the general public at the district levels also proved to be very popular. During the period from April to
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