The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) announced in a statement yesterday that the Macao Orchestra is slated to hold a concert on January 15 titled “Classical meets Impressionism—Macao Orchestra and Suzhou Symphony Orchestra”.
The Macao Orchestra, under mainland Chinese conductor Xu Zhong, in collaboration with mainland Chinese singer Dong Fang, will welcome the new year with “classical and impressionist music”.
The statement pointed out that Xu Zhong is “the first Asian musician in history to serve as the artistic director of the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Italy”. Xu will also perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as a soloist during the concert with the orchestra.
Dong Fang is among the Top 10 young mezzo-sopranos of state broadcaster CCTV who “gloriously bloom” in the nation, the statement underlined.
Dong will sing the soprano part in the concert, as well as perform French composer Maurice Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Mallarmé (“Three poems of Mallarmé”; Stéphane Mallarmé was a 19th century French poet and critic) with the orchestra. The orchestra will also perform Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte (“Pavane for a Dead Princess”; pavane being a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century) and Le tombeau de Couperin, the statement added.
A tombeau is a musical composition commemorating the death of a notable individual.
The concert will be held at the Macau Cultural Centre’s (CCM) Grand Auditorium at 8 p.m. on January 15, lasting about 1 hour and 45 minutes, including one interval, the statement said.
The statement noted that tickets will be sold at the Macau Ticketing Network from tomorrow and are priced at 250 patacas, 200 patacas and 150 patacas, adding that various discounts are available. Tickets can be purchased at the 24-hour ticketing hotline 2855 5555, the ticketing website at www.macauticket.com, or at the ticket counters.
Further details about the concert can be found at www.icm.gov.mo/om, the “Macao Orchestra” Facebook page, or the official WeChat account “MacaoOrchestra”, the statement said.
This undated handout photo provided by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) yesterday shows the Macao Orchestra with mainland Chinese conductor Xu Zhong.
