ENG-2019 — Page 378

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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra

The orchestra is the only professional, full-sized Chinese orchestra in Hong Kong. During the year, the orchestra performed in Japan, Greece and the Mainland of China, where it took part in the China Shanghai International Arts Festival Hong Kong Cultural Week, Festival Hong Kong 2019 A Cultural Extravaganza@Shanghai and concerts in Baoding, Harbin and Linyi.

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Hong Kong Dance Company

The company promotes Chinese dance with Hong Kong characteristics. It staged 66 performances in 2019, including Red Poppies and L'Amour Immortel. The company also performed The Legend of Mulan, L'Amour Immortel and Four Seasons and The Butterfly Lovers in Minsk, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen, and researched into Chinese martial arts and Chinese dance.

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

For the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, 2019 was a year of significance. The orchestra won the prestigious Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award, the first in Asia to receive this accolade. It toured extensively in the Mainland, holding hugely successful concerts in Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Foshan and Shanghai. Collaborative education and outreach programmes were launched, including the HK Phil x Tai Kwun: Chamber Music Series, the Swire Classics Insights Series and an inclusive concert led by music director Jaap van Zweden. The orchestra presents more than 150 concerts annually that draw over 200,000 music lovers.

Hong Kong Repertory Theatre

The company seeks to develop creative and diverse theatrical productions of Chinese and western works and local originals. Its nine productions in 2019 included the musicals La Cage aux Folles and The Good Person of Szechwan, the latter being co-produced and performed with the Actors' Family, and A Dream Like a Dream. The company also toured Mainland cities and Macao, where The Marriage won the Best Supporting Actress and Best Scenic Design prizes at the Chinese Theatre Awards.

Hong Kong Sinfonietta

The symphony orchestra is internationally renowned for its innovative programming and audience development efforts. It celebrated the 20th anniversary in 2019, during which it presented the premieres of a number of local and international commissions and was invited to perform its award-winning crossover production, A Soldier's Story 5.0, in Tokyo and Taiwan to critical acclaim. At home, the orchestra held sold-out concerts at Le French May and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Zuni Icosahedron

Zuni is Hong Kong's pioneer troupe of experimental theatre. During 2019, it presented the Architecture is Art Festival with the theme 'Beautiful Space Festival highlights included Architecture Music Theatre - In Praise of Shadows, Experimenting the Extinct Sounds - Rotten Big Ass, Hong Kong Belt-Road City-to-City Cultural Exchange Conference 2019: International Cultural Exchange Strategies and the Future, and The Interrupted Dream: Chinois Dream at Château de Versailles presented in One Belt One Road Experimental Theatre.

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