ENG-1999 — Page 429

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

by Hong Kong composers and premiered 15 modern works. It also participated in 39 accompaniment performances and 35 education and promotion performances.

Ming Ri Theatre

The Ming Ri Theatre Company, the first professional children's theatre in Hong Kong, is dedicated to promoting children's theatre as well as theatre-in-education. Its major productions in 1999 included: Na Zha, Adventure of Chiu Yee (performed in Japan) and Mulan.

Zuni Icosahedron

The Zuni Icosahedron started the year with performances of Journey to the East and the Baby at the Boiling Point Experimental Arts Festival. The company staged two new theatre productions: 1587-the Year of No Significance and Four Grand Inventions. It also held Drama Lab workshops and Black Box exhibitions advocating experimentalism and arts education. Its activities were also aimed at cultural exchange.

Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Established by ordinance in 1984 with an autonomous governing council, the academy offers professional training up to degree level in dance, drama, film and television, music and theatre technical arts.

The major development in the academy's 15th year was the establishment of the Centre for Chinese Traditional Theatre. September marked the first intake of full-time diploma students in Cantonese Opera.

During the year, some 300 public performances, screenings and exhibitions were given by the academy's students as part of their academic curriculum. Among the production highlights of the year were the operas The Barber of Seville and Cosi Fan Tutte and the drama Royal Hunt of the Sun.

Two piano students performed as soloists with the Queensland State Orchestra, one of whom was awarded a Silver Medal at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in Salt Lake City in Utah, USA. One violin student performed as soloist with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra.

In June, several graduating dance students performed in New York and Philadelphia, USA, as well as in Pretoria and Grahamstown, South Africa. A technical arts team took part in the Prague Quadrennial Design Exhibition in the Czech Republic.

The Ulster Symphony Orchestra's visit to Hong Kong in August featured two outstanding academy students as concerto soloists in its performance programmes. During the summer, the academy's Symphony Orchestra was invited to perform in several festivals in Austria, France, Spain and Britain. While on tour in the city of Prades, in the French Pyrenees, the orchestra recorded the song 'Hymn of Peace' for the United Nations.

Hong Kong Arts Centre

Established in 1977 and built exclusively from private donations, the Hong Kong Arts Centre is an 18-floor building housing three auditoria: Shouson Theatre (439

363