Active from 1977 | ||
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Similar Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Taipei Chinese Orchestra, China National Tradition, Peng Xiuwen | ||
The Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (Chinese: 香港中樂團; abbreviated HKCO) is an orchestra of Chinese traditional instruments based in Hong Kong. It was established in 1977 and comprises 85 musicians. The Artistic Director and Principal Conductor is Yan Huichang.
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Background
The HKCO was founded in 1977 by the former urban council of the local Hong Kong Government. Between January 2000 and March 2001, it was funded and managed by the government's Leisure and Cultural Services, but became an independent body that is under the management of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra Limited in April 2001. Its repertoire includes traditional, contemporary, and popular pieces, and it has commissioned numerous works by local composers from Hong Kong as well as Chinese composers around the world. In October 2002, the Orchestra was awarded for "The Most Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Contemporary Chinese Music" by the International Society of Contemporary Music.
It achieved a number of world records as recorded by Guinness Book of Records. In 2001, it recorded the largest number of people performing the erhu at the same time with a thousand players performing at a mass performance entitled Music from a Thousand Strings. In 2003, in a drum festival, it features the biggest Peace Drum (Taiping gu) and Gong with 3,000 drummers from local organisations and school playing a drum piece, "The Earth Shall Move", and in 2005, it set another world record for having the largest number of people playing the dizi together in the Dizi and Xiao Festival 2005.