Shock as Hong Kong Sinfonietta leader collapses on stage during concert and RTHK broadcast

Leader of a city’s flagship orchestra collapsed mid-way through a concert that shocked a full-house audience and possibly tens of thousands of listeners of the live broadcast. Australian-born, internationally trained James Cuddeford, concertmaster of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta since 2010, led the 50-strong orchestra at the City Hall Concert Hall on Saturday where he took the first violin chair under the baton of principal guest conductor Christoph Poppen. There was no sign of any problem until 20 minutes into the programme when the 40-year old Brisbane native suddenly stopped playing in the slow movement of Schumann Cello Concerto with French cellist Aurelien Pascal. After approximately ten seconds the violinist slowly slipped off his chair, falling hard onto the stage and then onto the floor, landing on his antique Gagliano violin, valued in the millions of Hong Kong dollars. WATCH: James Cuddeford speaks about his violin The performance was abruptly stopped, followed by screams of “we need a doctor”, and “someone call the ambulance”. “James was sick and we were aware of that, but he was so brave as to play anyway, that I admire very much,” said Poppen, who leapt from the podium to the floor to attend to the unconscious musician. “When he opened his eyes, he didn’t have any memory of the last two minutes, and he was lying on his violin, which took some damage. Perhaps that was an act of God to reduce the impact of the fall, which could have been worse,” the German maestro added. Hong Kong Sinfonietta CEO Margaret Yang told the terrified audience that Cuddeford was awake and asked the crowd to vacate the hall for a 15-minute break as an ambulance was on the way. Dear friends of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Our concertmaster James Cuddeford has now been admitted to hospital and... Posted by Hong Kong Sinfonietta 香港小交響樂團 on Saturday, November 7, 2015 The concertmaster was seen being wheeled on a wheelchair rather than a stretcher to the ambulance where he was then taken to Queen Mary Hospital. Accompanying him was his wife, Masami Nagai, the orchestra’s double bass principal, who said her husband was infected with a flu from their son. Orchestra staff said tests, including a CT scan, were performed on the violinist and nothing serious was detected. Tina Ma, the producer of the live broadcast on Radio Four of RTHK, said it was a panic moment when the concert went dead air. “We didn’t know if the concert would be cancelled thereafter so we played the pre-recorded interview with the French cellist and getting ready some CDs to play if the concert can’t go on,” she said. “The Sinfonietta was professional enough to set things straight and the concert was resumed shortly [after].” James Cuddeford, the concertmaster, dropped over the stage during performance last night. Best wishes with him. The incident was caught on Radio 4 broadcast last night. Posted by Dennis Wu 胡銘堯 on Saturday, November 7, 2015 “Without the leader, that was a moment to show how strong the orchestra can be, and I applaud the Sinfonietta musicians who showed a deeper emotional surge in the Brahms Second Symphony in the second half,” said Poppen. Associate concertmaster Kitty Cheung Man-yui, who took over the first desk starting with the slow movement of the Schumann concerto, was still tense in recalling those biting moments. “James gestured me to lead when he took his violin off his chin, and I thought he was just taking a breath due to the heat from the spot light on the stage,” she said. “That’s what we sometimes do during rehearsal, but it horrified me to see him fall off the stage, and my hands were trembling like Pakinson’s disease, it’s really to the credit of everyone in the orchestra for a mission accomplished and I wanted to hug all of them,” she added. If you or someone who know has photos of the incident please share them with the SCMP audience via email: onlinephotos@scmp.com