WHY WE ARE DOING THIS EVENT

The Hong Kong New Music Ensemble celebrates its fifth birthday in 2013. As one of the only new music chamber ensembles in Asia, we focus on developing fine quality performances of contemporary music and growing a solid community for adventurous music in Hong Kong. It is very expensive to pay our fine professional musicians and composers, develop interesting programmes, pay for major venues and do all the other necessary work to make a chamber ensemble run successfully. Currently we do this on a tiny, shoestring budget in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. In 2012 our not-for-profit organisation received a one-year grant from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, which is enough to only cover our basic infrastructure costs. We are grateful for this, but it is not enough to develop our ambitious programmes, provide financial stability to our musicians and composers, and provide more exciting programmes to our rapidly growing audience. We believe that any charitable organisation revolves around a community. So we decided to launch our first benefit and pre-season launch. It lets us let our fans and Hong Kongs press know what we have planned for the year ahead, and also give people with a bit of extra cash a way to support in tangible ways. It will be a fun night, bringing together good music, good food and drink, and hopefully initiate some excellent conversations.

ON MAY 11, WE WILL ANNOUNCE A PREVIEW OF OUR 2013-2014 SEASON, INCLUDING: 1) The new HKNME slogan for the 2013-2014 season 2) Our five major concerts in major venues Heres a taster: Our opening season concert will take place on September 22 at the Jockey Club Amphitheatre at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. It will be a portrait concert of the music of Hungarian master Gyorgy Ligeti. We will be doing a new version of Pome symphonique for 100 metronomes, and some other significant works, including Continuum (for solo harpsichord), the Horn Trio, the Chamber Concerto, as well as a new commission (homage to Ligeti) by celebrated Hong Kong composer, Lam Fung. 3) A number of smaller concerts, including the continuation of our series at Hong Kong Arts Centre, small concerts at SOUTHSITE Salon, a recital series, and tours to Macau and Singapore. 3) Some major new special initiatives, like the development of the HKNME Chamber Choir!