A world-class city needs a thriving cultural life, and the HKPO is doing its bit to lift standards across the board
AN ORCHESTRA CAN play an important role in the cultural life of a city. It can serve as a catalyst for the entire arts community and help raise the bar for artistic professionalism and creativity across the board.
'If we can succeed in putting our orchestra into the front ranks of the world league, this could indeed be a catalyst for the arts in Hong Kong because other organisations here would want to be good, too,' said Edo de Waart, artistic director and chief conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HKPO). 'It could have a snowball effect.'
Hong Kong may have finally shed its image as a cultural desert, but it still has a long way to go before it can be discussed in the same breath as New York, London or Berlin. The challenge goes beyond building first-class performance venues and attracting first-class performers to the city. The public's interest in the arts also has to be developed.
'It has to be a two-pronged approach,' de Waart said. 'It has to start in schools when children are still open-minded. When they learn languages, they learn very quickly. They also like music. They like to sing in the classrooms. If that is not encouraged, then we will have a problem later on.'
Performance arts groups such as orchestras, opera companies and modern dance troupes may not be fully financially self-supporting, but that does not mean they do not have a significant role to play in the life of a world-class city. Most of the world's great commercial centres are also cultural centres, requiring the support of government or business, or both.
'To me, a city that does not have a good arts life has no soul,' de Waart said. 'And a city without a soul is a concrete jungle.'
