MAESTRO CHRISTOPHER WARREN GREEN, THE LONDON CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AND THE HONG KONG SINFONIETTA
THE PAINTER CHRISTOS BOKOROS

 

The Chopin Society of Hong Kong is delighted to welcome to Hong Kong maestro Christopher Warren-Green and the London Chamber Orchestra  ( LCO) who will accompany the contestants in the final Round IV of the competitions in their performances of piano concertos. Members of the LCO will also accompany the contestants in Round III, which  involves chamber group performances.

The Chopin Society is also most thankful for the collaboration of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, members of which will augment and play with the LCO during these performances

  

Maestro Christopher Warren Green


Christopher started his musical career as a violinist when, at nineteen,  was invited to join the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, becoming two years later the concertmaster of the then BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra. After an appointment as  concertmaster with the Philarmonia, he returned  to the Academy of St Martin in the Fields as concertmaster. As a violin soloist he has appeared with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Neville Mariner, Michael Tilson Thomas, Giuseppe  Sinopoli and Leonard Slatkin.s

 

His conducting experience is wide and includes posts with the Joenkoeping Sinfonietta, the Sundsvall Chamber Orchestra and the Athens Camerata. He has also conducted several other orchestras, including the St.Louis, Minnesota, Indianapolis, Vancouver and Victoria Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, as well as the Seattle Symphony with which he has established a special link.

Other appearances have included return visits to the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

 

Christopher��s long standing relationship with the London Chamber Orchestra started in 1988, when he became its Music Director. With Virgin Classics he has recorded with the LCO a series of acclaimed CDs including Vivaldi��s Four Seasons, a selection of concert and orchestral pieces by Mozart and ��Minimalist��, a selection of  compositions of this particular genre

He also has recorded widely for BMG, EMI, Philips, and Chandos labels..

 

The London Chamber Orchestra 




The London Chamber Orchestra (LCO) is the oldest chamber orchestra in Britain, having been formed in 1921 by Anthony Barnard. Since then the LCO has developed into one of the major and acclaimed orchestras in the world based on its unique format of musicians, from other major symphonic orchestras in the UK, coming together to play as an independent group. The LCO receives no government support or subsidies, but relies on sponsorship from major companies as well as their performances, tours and recordings.

The LCO, in its eighty-four years of existence, premiered in the UK major works by leading composers including Malcolm Arnold, Manuel de Falla, Gabriel Faure, Leos Janacek, Maurice Ravel, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Igor Stravinsky. In addition the LCO champions and performs in premieres the work of contemporary composers such as Graham Fitkin and James Francis Brown.

Accolades of their playing are ample, but it is indicative what Sir Michael Tippett though of them:

��The LCO play with a mixture of creative daring and technical brilliance that I find inspiring, other composers too, must regard them as the ensemble of their dreams��

The LCO, under its Musical Director Christopher Warren Green divides its time between UK and international touring, as well as in educational and outreach work .Recent appearances included visits to the US, performances in La Scala , Milan as well in Vienna and  tours of Japan. The LCO also holds annual London season concerts in St Jonn��s Smith Square which attract major world soloists.

The LCO��s recording activities and discography are extensive, including the mentioned series of CDs for the Virgin label, which has won high accolades.

 

The Hong Kong Sinfonietta 

 

 


The Hong Kong Sinfonietta was founded in 1990 by a group of local musicians and has since grown in stature and reputation drawing also  financial support from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Since 2002 the Sinfonietta has been under the baton of musical director Yip Wing-sie,  herself a prize-winning conductor of wide artistic experience.

Over the years, in addition to very busy performing schedules in Hong Kong and touring overseas, the Sinfonietta  collaborated with a large number of acclaimed musicians including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Bashmet, Gary Graffman, Christopher Hogwoog, and Shlomo Mintz, to mention but a few.

  

Christos Bokoros


Among the leading painters in Greece, Christos�� work is familiar to the Hong Kong audience having had two major solo exhibitions in the Exchange Square Rotunda in 1996 and in the City Hall as part of the 2001 Festival of Light organised by the Chopin Society of Hong Kong.

His paintings, of startling but deeply intellectual realism ,draw mainly from Greek traditions and themes, some religious and some secular, but always confront the viewer with a challenging approach to ways of seeing and understanding the visual world.

Christos designed the main ��piano�� logo of the competition and the flame theme, which dominates in all the publicity material of the competition and which appears in the winners�� medals, is drawn from his work.

 

 

 

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