THE HONG KONG Sinfonietta (HKS) closes out the 2005/06 season with music by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Ibert, Suk and Beethoven. Visiting artists include conductor Scott Yoo, violinist Mengla Huang and pianist Freddy Kempf.
'They are all very young, in their late 20s or early 30s,' said Yip Wing-sie, music director of the sinfonietta. 'It is our practice to present young artists to the Hong Kong audience. There are so many talented young musicians in the world we have never heard of.'
Yoo was recently appointed music director of the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival in California. Launching his musical studies with the violin at the age of three, he made his debut performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra when he was just 12. An individual of many talents, he graduated with honours and a bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard University in 1993.
He will conduct two HKS programmes next month. The Story of Mozart will be targeted at children and their parents. Happy Birthday, Mozart! will be a regular orchestral concert, featuring two of Mozart's best-loved concertos, Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor and Flute Concerto No 2 in D.
'He [Yoo] used to be a violinist and still plays the violin and was more or less a prodigy himself,' Ms Yip said. 'That makes him the right person to talk about Mozart as a genius. He will share his views with us at the concerts.'
Huang, who began studying the violin at the age of four, was accepted by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at the age of eight. He will perform Elgar's Violin Concerto at an HKS concert in March.