About The Hong Kong Bach Choir and Orchestra
The Hong Kong Bach Choir is one of Hong Kong’s longest established choirs. Formed in 1970, the original Choir was an ensemble of 15 singers assembled to support the Baroque Ensemble for a single performance of a single Bach cantata. Over the years its membership has expanded significantly and it now has a multi-national membership of more than 100 singers. The Choir presents two concerts in major venues each year.
The Choir has enjoyed the direction of a number of conductors over its 40-year history, from its earliest days with Dr Carl Halter through productive associations with such local musicians as Peter Stevenson and Michael Ryan. Since 1992, the Choir has been under the musical leadership of Jerome Hoberman, with whom it has sung a diverse range of music. It now has the widest repertoire of any choir in Hong Kong, ranging from the fifteenth century to the present day.
Demonstrating a flair for originality in musical programming, the Choir has performed a series of significant local premières. These include the first Asian performance of Otto Olsson’s Te Deum and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The First Nowell, and the first Hong Kong performances of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Britten’s St. Nicholas, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time (in the composer’s centenary year in 2005), Honegger’s Le Roi David (in Le French May 2006) and Berlioz’s Messe solennelle (in Le French May 2009) as well as world premières of four commissioned works by local composers: From the Old to the New Testament, composed for the Choir in 1998 by Ip Kim Ho, Veni Sancte Spiritus by Christopher Keyes, commissioned by the Choir and first performed in 1999, Ip Kim Ho’s An Offering of Flowers, written to be inserted into the Choir’s 2002 performance of Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Han Shan (Cold Mountain) by Joyce Wai-chung Tang in 2005, and Francis David Urrows’ Prelude and a Psalm of Francis Thompson in 2007.
In May 2006 the The Hong Kong Bach Choir made its debut at Le French May with an all-French programme featuring works by modern composers such as Hongegger, Messiaen, Langlais, Boulanger and Poulenc, and featured again in 2009 with another all-French programme. The Choir has also participated in special events such as the 30 June 1997 Handover Ceremony marking the return of Hong Kong to China; a Christmas concert recorded for RTHK in December 1998; the HK Chorale Festival in May 1999; and the RTHK Festival at City Hall in December 1999. Recently in March 2008 the Choir has collaborated with the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club in the performance of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Bach Orchestra was formed by Hoberman in 1995 to accompany the Choir in its 25th anniversary performance of Bach’s B-Minor Mass. Since then, the Orchestra has regularly shared the stage with the choir and occasionally appears on its own. It features leading members of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and prominent local freelance musicians. For the Orchestra the Choir commissioned Christopher Coleman’s Dark Gardens in 1999.
