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Hong Kong Youth Strings Won High Acclaims at 2024 Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna

Hong Kong Youth Strings Won High Acclaims at 2024 Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna
As the Music Office’s youth music outbound exchange programme of the year, 43 members of the Hong Kong Youth Strings (HKYS), led by conductor Dr Joseph Kam, has visited Vienna, Austria, between 4 and 11 July for the 2024 Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival, and won 2nd Place with Outstanding Success in the String Orchestra Category with their sophomore performance in the world-renowned Weiner Musikverien.

Among the youth music groups from around the world, the jury greatly praised the HKYS’s curation of repertoire with the seamless transition between captivating excerpts from Shostakovich’s classic Sinfonia and the Festival’s compulsory piece Puccini’s Crisantemi, followed by the east-meet-west “Canthoven” Rhapsody, and the conclusion with the waltz from Bernstein’s Divertimento. Besides HKYS gave two exchange performances respectively in the House of Strauss on 6 July and in the ORF RadioKulturhaus on 8 July.

Since its establishment in 1985, the HKYS has been serving as youth music ambassador of Hong Kong by organising overseas performing tours. It left footprints on the USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Macau and Austria, and was recognised with high musical standard by receiving awards internationally. In 2017, it was awarded with the Gold Band (Winner of the Category) in string orchestras up to 21 years old, and the Grand Prix for Orchestras (the Best Orchestra) from the 8th International Youth Music Festival in Bratislava.

Learn more:
https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/mo/activities/yme/outbound/2024HKYSVienna.html