Hong Kong Sinfonietta is one of Hong Kong’s flagship orchestras. With conductor Yip Wing-sie as Music Director, the orchestra has brought music closer to the community, and has achieved significant recognition locally and internationally for its passionate performances and innovative programming. Since 1999*, Hong Kong Sinfonietta has collaborated with an illustrious array of international musicians and groups, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Plácido Domingo, Fou Ts’ong, Christopher Hogwood, Luciano Pavarotti, Krzysztof Penderecki, Pinchas Zukerman, Mariinsky Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. The orchestra has also been a regular participant at all the major festivals in Hong Kong including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Le French May and festivals presented by the Hong Kong Government. It also partners regularly with Hong Kong Ballet and Opera Hong Kong in their staged productions. In 2018, the orchestra organised the 1st Hong Kong International Conducting Competition, which attracted 310 applications from 49 countries/regions. The orchestra performs year-round with over 100 performances a season and has been the Venue Partner of the Hong Kong City Hall since 2009. Apart from standard orchestral repertoire, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, as an avid believer of keeping music alive and contemporary, commissions and performs new works every year and ventures into crossover concerts both at the City Hall and at the residency at ArtisTree. Launched in 2006, the HKS Artist Associate scheme provides a platform for intensive collaboration with local artists from different arts disciplines to expand the horizon of classical music. The orchestra’s discography includes CDs of works by Chinese composers on HUGO, and three double-CD albums This is Classical Music on DECCA which have been awarded Platinum and Gold Records. Its newest album, The Passage Beyond in Concert by Leon Ko, was released on DECCA in July 2018. Hong Kong Sinfonietta has also pioneered specially-designed concert series for different audiences and age groups, including Good Music for Babies, Good Music for Kids, Know Your Classical Music, Shortcut to Classical Music and HKS McDull Music Project. Since 2010, Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s chamber music concerts have continued to break down barriers between music and audience as we perform at unconventional spaces. On tour, Hong Kong Sinfonietta has been invited to perform in North America in Canada and New York City; in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in South America; in Europe at the prestigious Festival International de Piano La Roque d’Anthéron, Festival de Musique Menton, Saint-Riquier Festival, Les Flâneries Musicales d’Été de Reims and Festival Les Nuits Romantiques in France, in Germany at Gezeitenkonzerte Ostfriesland, at Beethoven Easter Festival in Poland, in Switzerland at Tonhalle Zürich, Geneva Victoria Hall and Fribourg, Festival Pianistico Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico in Italy, in Portugal at the Marvão International Music Festival, and in Lithuania; in China at the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival and China Shanghai International Arts Festival (Expo 2010 Shanghai), in Beijing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts; in Japan at La Folle Journée in Tokyo and Niigata, Nagano and Kanazawa; in Korea at the Tongyeong International Music Festival and in Singapore at the Esplanade, and in Taiwan. In 2019, the orchestra will return to Japan and perform at Asia Orchestra Week, and give two concerts in Taiwan.