The Hong Kong Festival Orchestra and Voices ("HKFO") is one of the largest and leading orchestra and choir festivals in Hong Kong. Founded in 2009, HKFO brings together experienced local musicians educated amongst the top music institutions from around the globe to provide a series of concerts over the years, collaborating with celebrated artists including the grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell and composer Eric Whitacre; pianist Yundi Li, cellists Jian Wang and Trey Lee, conductor Vassily Sinaisky; as well as popular singer George Lam and comedian Jim Chim, amongst many others.
Apart from giving conventional performances, HKFO also engages in audience-interacting activities and cross-media performances, ranging from contemporary dance, drama, comedy, popular music, and other art forms. In 2013, HKFO hosted Hong Kong’s first and largest choral-orchestral flash mob. Involving more than 200 musicians, HKFO’s flash mob received universal acclaim; its video has now accrued more than 1.3 million views on YouTube, amassing viewers from all over the globe.
Critically reviewed by Moyers & Company, as well as featured in a documentary produced by the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television), HKFO’s flash mob was exhibited in late 2016 at the Musée de la musique at the heart of the Philharmonie de Paris as part of the “Le Mythe Beethoven” exhibition. Using an alternative, youthful and creative way to present the traditional art form, HKFO hopes to revitalise the city by planting the invigorating seeds of art and culture into our communities, to tend the once “cultural desert” into green pastures.