In mid-September, Gold Members were invited to enjoy the Hong Kong Sinfonietta's ‘Coming Together – Sheng & Didgeridoo!’ concert, which was held in HK City Hall Concert Hall. The concert allowed members to feel as if they were in nature, and to feel the healing power of music. The concert was themed ‘Sheng’ and ‘Didgeridoo’ and featured the world premiere of ‘Coming Together for Sheng & Didgeridoo’, a concerto written by Australia's new generation composer, Dylan Crismani, performed by leading Sheng virtuoso Loo Sze-wang and Australian Didgeridoo superstar William Barton, who made his Hong Kong debut this time. This was the world premiere of the piece, allowing the audience to be the first to enjoy the two distinctive, fascinating and versatile traditional instruments intertwined with each other on stage, together with the Symphony Orchestra.

Australia's national treasure Didgeridoo superstar – William Barton, makes his Hong Kong debut!

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument of Australian Aboriginal origin with a history of at least 1,000 years. Hong Kong Sinfonietta is proud to present Australia's premier didgeridoo master, William Barton, for his debut performance in Hong Kong. Elected “Australian of the Year 2023 (Queensland)” in 2023, this Australian national treasure is one of the most iconic didgeridoo superstars, and is highly respected internationally as a composer, instrumentalist and vocalist.

Barton has composed works for didgeridoo, orchestra, string quartet, jazz band and rock band, and taken part in collaborative projects with some of Australia’s leading composers. He utilises his cultural heritage and storytelling to engage audiences in the uniqueness of Australia, its Aboriginal heritage and to challenge perspectives of the didgeridoo as an instrument. He works closely with classical music composers to preserve and expand the horizons of didgeridoo music. He is active as a soloist as well as collaboratively with orchestras, string quartets, mixed ensembles, traditional dance groups and fusion/rock/jazz bands. In 2008, the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony committee commissioned Barton as one of the three composers for the Australian segment of the ceremony, which was broadcast to a worldwide audience.

World premiere of ‘Coming Together for Sheng & Didgeridoo’

Another master of the concert was the Sheng virtuoso Loo Sze-wang. Master Loo is equally active as soloist and chamber musician, his performances have been heard in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, USA, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Singapore, Korea and China, etc. In this rare collaboration, the two masters performed the concerto ‘Coming Together for Sheng & Didgeridoo’ written by the rising star Australian composer, Dylan Crismani, in which the two instruments, each with its own distinctive sound, echoed each other to create an unparalleled harmony.

Under the baton of conductor Luke Dollman, the concert also featured “Egmont Overture, Op 84” and “Symphony No 7 in A, Op 92” by Beethoven as well as the Hong Kong première of Peter Sculthorpe’s atmospheric “Earth Cry”. The concert took the audience into the mysteries of nature and the magic of music, and ended with applause and exclamations.

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(Some contents are excerpted from ‘Hong Kong Sinfonietta’)