As an annual cycle closes and another begins, the public eagerly anticipates the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra’s New Year Concert. Our 50th anniversary New Year Concert carries even deeper meaning—both as a celebration welcoming the new year and a prelude to the orchestra’s 2027 European tour. 

This concert chronicles four Chinese dynasties—Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang—but it does not merely extol ancient military glories, instead using the distinctive Chinese orchestral idiom to celebrate the pinnacle of cultural and artistic achievement, the profound humanistic spirit and the essence of Chinese civilisation. 

This concert features four monumental works taking the audience on a journey across millennia. Chew Hee Chiat’s Harken Back to Zhou explores the origins of ritual music. Peng Xiuwen’s large-scale Terra Cotta Warriors Fantasiapaints a majestic and solemn portrait of the vast and powerful Qin empire. Zhao Jiping’s Silk Road Fantasy Suite for guanzi and orchestra (showcasing the orchestra’s guanzi soloists Ma Wai Him and Qin Jitao) evokes Han-dynasty splendour and romance. Ng Cheuk Yin’s Tang Resonating concludes the concert with contemporary rhythmic vitality, portraying ancient majesty.

Time passes but the spirit of music endures. We cordially invite you to bid farewell to the outgoing year and welcome the new with the resplendent soundscape of Chinese orchestral music recalling those echoes of bygone eras.