The department's cultural presentations offered music, dance, theatre and multi-media performing arts programmes all year round. These ranged from the traditional to the cutting edge and offered to Hong Kong's audience the best from local artists as well as from international stars. A total of 1,811 performances were presented, attracting an audience of 814,192.

Highlight programmes were grouped thematically to enhance interest and attraction. The more representative ones included the Encore Series featuring renowned musicians, the Chinese Operatic Art Series, the Chinese Music Series, the Jazz Up Series and the Comedy Series.

The music programme featured top artists including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Lorin Mazzel, the Latvian National Opera playing Eugene Onegin and Nabucco, pianist Murray Perahia, violinists Itzhak Perlman and Midori, soprano June Anderson and jazz artist Pat Metheny.

	Performance by Kirov Ballet of the Marinsky Theatre.

The international dance programme featured the Kirov Ballet from Russia, the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre from Taiwan, the Random Dance Company from UK and the National Dance Company of Korea. Our visiting theatre groups included the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord from France playing Le Costume directed by Peter Brook, The Tempest by Aand BC from the UK and Kabuki For Everyone from Japan.

	Performance by Kabuki for Everyone from Japan.

Multi-arts highlights included the Shanghai Acrobatic Theatre, M Garden by Kung Chi Shing and friends, the Pikkari Theatre from Japan, Cookin from South Korea and the Dadawa Music Theatre in Riddler.

	Cantonese Opera Troupe of Wuchuan City of Guangdong: A showcase of traditional Cantonese opera of the southern school — the Xiasifu styles.

To take advantage of Hong Kong's ready access to Chinese Opera from the Mainland, the department presented Chinese Opera programmes from different provinces, including the Peking Opera Theatre from Beijing, the Han Opera of Guangdong, the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Theatre of Jiangsu, the Zhejiang Peking Opera Troupe, as well as the Chinese Opera Troupe of Wuchuan City, Guangdong. To support the development of Cantonese opera in Hong Kong, the department commissioned new works in addition to presenting the traditional and established repertoire. New works commissioned this year included Xining Reform, Zhuang Zi's Butterfly Dream, Rhododendron Mountain, Lee Kwong Wong and Between Laughter and Tears. In addition, the new production Centuries-old Theatre Tradition of Paichangxi was an attempt to rejuvenate seldom performed old repertoires.

Celebration Programmes of the 5^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

To celebrate the 5^th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a Music of the Dragons concert was organised jointly with the All-China Youth Federation and the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups. More than 10,000 young musicians participated, coming from the Mainland, Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The piece, Ten Thousand Hearts Beat as One, which was played at the beginning of the concert, set a new Guinness World Record for largest percussion performance.

Other celebration programmes included: a grand military band and march performance by the People's Liberation Army of China and The People's Liberation Army Forces of Hong Kong; a Cantonese operatic songs concert featuring renowned singers from Hong Kong and Guangzhou; and two International Rock Concerts targeted at rock music fans, staged on July 11 and 12, 2002 at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium. Renowned rock bands — including INXS from Australia, X.Y.Z. A from Japan, Hei Bao from the Mainland, and BOXX from Taiwan — joined hands with local artists DSC and Yip Sai Wing & Friends, to give rock music lovers in Hong Kong a real treat.

	Grand military band and march performance by the Military Band of the People's Liberation Army of China and the People's Liberation Army Forces of Hong Kong, one of the celebration programmes of the 5th anniversary of the Establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.