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Due to Typhoon Ragasa, the Barry Douglas + CCOHK concert scheduled on 23 SEP (TUE) at 8pm at the Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall is now cancelled/postponed. Ticket holders must keep the original intact concert ticket(s) (with stubs) for further arrangements. Deadline: 27 OCT 2025 Updates: www.facebook.com/ccohk Further Enquiries: info@ccohk.com

CCOHK is currently recruiting professional musicians for the following core player positions: Principal Cello / Tutti Violin Applicants must be music graduates with professional orchestral experience To register for an audition please send your CV and a sample video clip of your solo playing by email to info@ccohk.com If successful, an invitation to prepare orchestral excerpts for a live audition will be extended, followed by a trial concert Registration Deadline: N/A About City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong Since 1999 City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) has established itself as one of Asia’s leading chamber orchestras. Members are professional musicians who deliver internationally acclaimed performances and recordings. CCOHK’s annual concert season highlights the performance of small-scale orchestral works in diverse styles, collaborations with world-class artists and newly curated orchestra-theatre programmes for young audiences
Further Enquiries info@ccohk.com

Judging from the fervant reactions of the audience, Galliano & CCOHK gave them a unforgettable musical night. Ka-man Choi, IATC

Featuring crossover soloists seems to be a City Chamber Orchestra specialty, and the enthusiastic response to Marsalis's Hong Kong debut should encourage them to stick with it. South China Morning Post

A spirited performance South China Morning Post

The fourth movement was performed so well that the audience was clearly impressed by CCOHK Edison Hung

CCOHK not only positions itself as an orchestra, but is capable of successfully collaborating with other talented artists and production crew in theatre to great effect Jane Tang, Hong Kong Economic Journal

Highly spontaneous...an extremely heart-warming and brilliant intrepretation Kelly Chu, Singtao Daily 「弦韻奇葩」– 張永宙 自然流露...感動萬分，是一次出色的演繹 星島日報

The strings sounded delicious, with a characteristic mellow English sweetness. South China Morning Post

City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong’s four-item programme – by turns pastiche, inventive, cerebral and jocular – featured the celebrated percussionist and the orchestra. The string players radiated a rare warmth in tone; while the brass made attractive contributions. South China Morning Post

The overwhelming response from the audience was testament to the success of the whole programme.

Operating an orchestra these days is not an easy task. It is also not easy to come up with brand new ideas that audiences will accept, even if it means collaborations that put the orchestra less in the limelight. This idea and approach sometimes works in our lives... Mr. Magazine 法蘭明高‧樂舞經典 「觀眾反應熱烈証明節目〈法蘭明高‧樂舞經典〉的成功。」

「現在經營樂團殊不容易，要有新意，又要觀眾受落，有時唯有把自己放在第2位。把這種思想和做法放諸生活有時都好work...」 Mr. 雜誌

World-renowned flautist Sir James Galway has been in town on several missions, but found time to pay an unexpected act of respect to the victims of the Lamma ferry disaster.

The Irish legend, along with his flautist wife Lady Jeanne Galway, performed to a packed audience at the City Hall Concert Hall on Friday as they kicked off the concert season of the City Chamber Orchestra.

The concert was part of a week's activities for the septuagenarian maestro, including masterclasses where he shared his expertise with more than 100 local flute players.

The couple made a brief appearance at the pre-concert reception to meet the orchestra's board, including chairman Bryan Carter and his wife Stella, new director of the Academy for Performing Arts Adrian Walter and Hong Kong Philharmonic board member Janice Choi.

The new season will also feature legendary percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, who will perform and record with the City Chamber Orchestra, according to founder and executive director Leanne Nicholls.

The opening concert will be best remembered by Galway's third encore, when he played Danny Boy in memory of the ferry victims. You could have heard a pin drop during this heartfelt performance. Oliver Chou, South China Morning Post

read online: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1057131/flautist-james-galway-pays-tribute-lamma-ferry-collision-victims

Flamenco Classico is an imaginative collaboration between the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong and choreographer Nina Corti. Led by two outstanding flamenco dancers from Spain, Rosana Romero and Adrian Santana, the show was rapturously received by a packed house.
Musically, the most unusual item was the Quintet No 4 in D Major and G.448 Fandango by 18th century Italian composer Luigi Boccherini. The only piece to showcase the guitar, the closing fandango was distinguished by a thrilling virtuoso castanet performance by Romero.
This was followed by two of the best-known Spanish (or Spanish-influenced) compositions of all time. The first, Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo was performed with elan by the orchestra and showed off the dancers' classic flamenco skills, with their tapping feet, claps and snapping fingers enhancing the score.
The second, Bizet's Carmen was presented in the form of Russian composer Rodion Schedrin's 1967 Carmen Suite, created as a ballet for his wife the great Maya Plisetskaya. Schedrin's inclusion of other Bizet music and extensive use of instruments like the marimba and vibraphone resulted in the work being banned by the conservative Soviet authorities. Daring in its time, it today sounds dated and the instrumentation works against the music - the vibraphone is not ideal for expressing sexual passion or homicidal jealousy.
Corti gets full marks for ambition in staging Carmen as a two-hander and sensibly opts for an impressionistic approach. This produces some exceptional moments, notably a smouldering habanera, while Carmen's murder was so dramatic the small girl in front of me flung herself into her mother's lap in terror, a tribute to the performers' power.
However, a cast of two is too restrictive - the succession of she-loves-me, she-loves-me not duets becomes repetitive and confusion creeps in with Santana portraying both Don José and Escamillo. And while flamenco is an ideal emotional match for the story, the dance vocabulary is limiting in this context.
Any quibbles about music or choreography were overcome by the spectacular performances of Romero and Santana, whose technical brilliance was equalled by the intensity of their interpretation. A dazzling encore of pure flamenco sent the audience home happy. Natasha Rogai, South China Morning Post read online: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1142729/dazzling-evening-flamenco-city-hall

The surprise was the chamber orchestra, who with a relatively small number of players delivered nuanced and powerful impact in support of the speakers and chorus. Alan Yu, Bachtrack

“The orchestra and the narrators were excellent...The two percussionists in the orchestra were perhaps the most entertaining as they ran around the xylophones, timpani, drums and bells” Hong Kong Economic Journal

“City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong was totally buoyed up. The string section was given the full rein to the perfect match of the woodwind section” Ta Kung Pao

Sir James Galway is undoubtedly one of the most famous flautists in the world. Since leaving the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and starting his solo career in 1975, Galway has accumulated a discography of over 65 CDs that goes far beyond classical music and into popular and soundtrack music. And with over 30 million of his albums sold, it’s no wonder that City Hall was packed for the first of two concerts with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong.
Mozart dominated the evening that opened with the Flute Concerto No 2 in D, K.314. Unlike his first concerto, the second was an adaptation of Mozart’s Oboe Concerto. Galway, doubling as the conductor, set a tempo that was a tad slow, thus failing to give the first movement the kick it ought to have. This, however, was beautifully offset by the awe-inspiring cadenza at the end. The second and third movements found a more suitable pace, with the orchestra also sounding more confident. Throughout, Galway played with a clear golden tone that shaped the most pleasing phrases. Mozart’s Symphony No 29 in A, K201, one of his better known early symphonies, followed. In the first two movements, Galway took an expansive view that slightly bordered lethargic. Despite this, the CCOHK responded most eloquently, with humour in the Minuet and with panache in the finale.
Arranged by David Overton especially for Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway, The Magic Flutes opened the second half. The three-movement suite consists of snippets of Mozart melodies expertly and amusingly woven together, was delightfully played. Augmenting a rather short second half were a series of encores that included Mozart’s Ronda alla turca (for two flutes), two Irish traditional – Brian Boru’s March and Danny Boy/Londonderry Air; and Bach’s Badinerie (Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor final movement).

Overall, the performance was very well received and showed Galway’s technical brilliance and superb showmanship remained impeccable. Satoshi Kyo, TimeOut read online:  http://www.timeout.com.hk/music/features/53894/james-galway-live-in-hong-kong.html

What a lovely disc this is! This is a collection of three English recorderconcertos by Malcolm Arnold, Gordon Jacob, and Richard Harvey. The recorders are accompanied by a delicate orchestra, consisting of strings, flutes, clarinets, harp, celesta, and percussion. Harvey's concerto is a most enjoyable discovery, and so there's really nothing to do but to go out and purchase this CD! Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare

Performed by the incomparable instrumental soloist Michala Petri and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong under the direction of conductor Jean Thorel, these varied pieces demonstrate the range of once-maligned woodwind. From the dramatic opening of Harvey's Concerto Incantanto through the pastoral meanderings of Jacob's Suite for Recorder and Strings, this is the music of European myth and history. Recommended. Chris Morgan, Scene

Petri’s crystal clear virtuosity finds an ideal partner in perfectly balanced, idiomatic and sensitive accompaniments of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong conducted by Jean Thorel. A highly recommended CD that will not only delight recorder fans, but will also appeal to a wide audience! Klassik Heute

“This is one of the best CDs of recorder music that I have ever heard. Michala Petri…has given a superb performance. Jean Thorel at the helm of the City Chamber Orchestra has contributed a sympathetic accompaniment to these three concertos. This is an enjoyable CD that is well played and features a diverse programme.The presentation of the disc is impressive: it looks and feels good. The sound quality is excellent.”  MusicWeb International