Due to health reasons, Charlie Haden has had to cancel his concert with his Quartet West in Hong Kong on 3-4 February 2012. Ticket holders can obtain a refund in the following ways:
REFUND IN PERSON (Cash) Please visit the URBTIX outlets at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre or Hong Kong City Hall between 29 December 2011 and 22 January 2012 (10:00am–9:30pm daily) with your unused tickets to the Charlie Haden Quartet West concert for immediate cash refund.
REFUND BY POST (Cheque) Please click here to download the refund form, then complete and return it by post with your unused tickets to the concert to: Hong Kong Arts Festival Society, 12/F, 2 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong before 29 February 2012. Refund requests take approximately four weeks to process from the date of receipt.
For enquiries, please call 2824 2430.
Speech by Mr Douglas Gautier (Executive Director, Hong Kong Arts Festival Society Ltd) at the 2006 Festival Kick-off Press Conference
18 October 2005
Our 2006 Festival will offer, over a 37 day period, 106 paid performances with 40 performing groups - 30 overseas/10 local - as well as five exhibitions and our inclusive Festival Plus programme of talks, seminars and meet-the-artist sessions.
One of the aims in programming the 2006 Festival was to present some of the world's best performing ensembles in work which showcases them at the peak of their powers - for example the San Francisco Symphony, Britain's National Theatre, the Schaubühne Theatre from Berlin, Rosas dance company, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE).
There will also be a number of tributes to such artists as Ray Charles from John Scofield, and Antonio Carlos Jobim from Paquito D'Rivera and New York Voices. Importantly 2006 marks Mozart's 250th birthday and we celebrate with a superb production of Don Giovanni from the Semper Opera Dresden and Opera Nuremberg, and mostly Mozart programmes in our chamber music series and orchestral concerts from the OAE. These will be supplemented by two fascinating Mozart exhibitions of his life and works.
This is a Festival that also welcomes international, living, cultural 'treasures' - for example, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Michael Tilson Thomas, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Lin Hwai-min and Eva Yerbabuena - as well as some of our own Hong Kong 'living treasures' such as Doming Lam (celebrating his 80th birthday), Chung King-fai, Sheren Tang and Koi Ming-fai.
The Theatre component is particularaly exciting. The National Theatre's production of The History Boys - their most successful play ever - will premiere internationally at our Festival in an exclusive season before it goes to Broadway. Nora, the re-working of Ibsen's classic A Doll's House, is an astonishing piece of work by Germany's most outstanding director of his generation - Thomas Ostermeier. In addition Taiwan's U-Theatre meets the Shaolin kung-fu masters in A Touch of Zen, and we premiere a home grown musical from the Actors' Family - The Legend of the White Snake - another Arts Festival commission.
We also look forward to the collaboration of our own Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, under Edo De Waart, and the magnificent City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, under Simon Halsey, in performances of Mahler's Symphony No 2 and the ethereal Requiem by Fauré.
For this Festival we have also programmed works which will especially appeal to family audiences - take a look at Beauty and the Beast from the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Red Priest, Circus Ronaldo and the recital from local pianist Lio Kuok Wai.
Do also keep an eye out for our exhibition programme and Festival Plus.
This is your Festival, so I invite you to take a good look at our Programme & Booking Guide and our website. We also encourage you to take advantage of our internet booking service - all details are on the site.
We hope to see you all again and very often during the Festival period, and we thank you for your ongoing support, and being with us today.
