The final edition of Hong Kong’s leading chamber music festival, the Beare’s Premiere Music Festival, which runs from January 23 to 30, feels like a celebration and the turning of a page.
Launched in 2009 as the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, it was renamed in 2019 after partnering with the London-based dealer and restorer of fine string instruments J & A Beare. The festival now draws to a close with a lineup that reflects how far the city’s chamber music scene has evolved since its inception.
The festival set out to plug a gap – at the time when the Hong Kong Arts Festival was almost alone in bringing world-class chamber ensembles to town. The first edition brought together top international artists, offering free workshops and masterclasses.
When the 10th festival rolled out, it had built an international reputation with past performers including the Emerson Quartet, Lynn Harrell, Ning Feng, Gary Hoffman, Wu Han, and the Jerusalem Quartet. This year’s program takes place at Hong Kong City Hall, distilling that history into a week of outstanding concerts. Musical Fireworks on January 25 brings together 17 festival players for a condensed tour of the chamber repertoire that has anchored the festival’s identity, spanning Handel and Wolf, Dvorak, Turina, and Gershwin.
On the same day, Musical Fairy Tales: The Emperor’s New Clothes features performance artist and educator Marc Ngan narrating stories in Cantonese and English, alongside local award-winning musicians introducing children to works by Bruce Adolphe, Anne Dudley, and Peter Schickele.
Later in the week, Ode to Beethoven and Strings in Motion spotlight individual players, including clarinetist Wenzel Fuchs, violinist Ning Feng, and cellist Li-Wei Qin.
The Festival Finale, featuring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and including So-Ock Kim, Yura Lee, Angela Chan, and Stefan Jackiw, offers a valedictory statement: a baroque classic performed by a multinational ensemble in one of Hong Kong’s most celebrated venues.
As the final notes of the Beare’s Premiere Music Festival fade at City Hall, the festival’s true legacy lies in the confident, world-class chamber music culture it has established in Hong Kong.
Bernard Charnwut Chan is the chairman of the West Kowloon Cultural District
