Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

In 1947, Anthony Braga, one of the leaders of the music group of Sino-British Club, suggested to form a symphony orchestra to gather instrumentalists in the city and provide musical performance to the citizen, as the society is still recovering from the World War II. About 20 amateur musicians were found, and a chamber orchestra was formed.

In 1957, members of the Orchestra decided to separate from the group from Sino-British Club. As an independent organisation, the orchestra was renamed to Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1974, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra became the first professional orchestra in Hong Kong.

The orchestra gives more than 140 performances annually to an audience of over 180,000. In February 1986, the HKPO made its debut tour of several cities in the People's Republic of China, with conductor Kenneth Schermerhorn and soloists Stephanie Chase (violin) and Li Jian (piano). In the autumn of 1995, the HKPO travelled to 9 cities in the United States and Canada in its North American début under conductor David Atherton. In 2003, the orchestra made its European début with performances in London's Barbican Hall, Belfast, Dublin and Paris.

The orchestra made it's debut recording under the label Philips in 1978.

In 1997, the orchestra is featured in Tan Dun's album Heaven Earth Mankind: Symphony 1997, as a celebration for the re-unification of Hong Kong.

The orchestra has also started a four-year project in 2015, making it the first Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese orchestra to perform Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung. The four operas will be performed, one a year, in concert and recorded live for the Naxos label.

Each year the orchestra hold a crossover concert with selected canto-pop singers. Since the concert of Michael Kwan in 1982, the most successful one is the live recording of the concert with Jacky Cheung in 1996.

The orchestra also gives an annual outdoor performance, Symphony Under The Stars, Hong Kong's largest outdoor symphonic concert which attracts thousands of participants every year. Venues include the Happy Valley Racecourse and the New central Harbourfront. Wikipedia