In two performances the RTHK Quartet presents a wide-ranging repertoire of best-loved string quartets and Chinese works for the ensemble. The first performance selects famous excerpts from the most notable quartets: Beethoven’s exciting finale concluding the String Quartet No.9 in C, the regal slow movement of Haydn’s String Quartet in C featuring the Austrian royal melody, and the opening movement of lyrical Brahms’s second quartet juxtaposed against the lively Dance of the Yao People. The first performance is ideal for a first taste of string quartet masterpieces.

The second performance features complete performance of three string quartets by Beethoven, Brahms and première Hong Kong composer Ng Cheuk-yin’s work. Although Richard Strauss is better known as a composer writing for gigantic ensemble, one should not miss his romantic string sextet from his last opera Capriccio. Overflown with Straussian lyricism and drama, the string sextet will be heard in both performances as a celebration of Strauss anniversary.

Young yangqin player of Hong Kong, Kwok Ka-ying, is the first postgraduate to be awarded a Master’s degree in yangqin from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She is currently an instructor in yangqin at the College of Allied Arts of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts – Chinese Opera and its Junior Music Programme, a freelance musician of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, a resident musician of the Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble, a member of the Cimbalom World Association and the Founder and President of the Hong Kong Dulcimer Institute. Kwok was born in Guangzhou, China. She studied at the Guangdong Cantonese Opera Academy and the middle school affiliated to the Xinghai Conservatory of Music before she was awarded a full scholarship to study at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (APA) in 2005. Her mentors included Hu Ruoxiong, Wang Wenli, Chan Sam-lam, Cheung Yu-Chu and Yu Mei-lai, While at the APA, She was the Yangqin Principal of the Academy Chinese Orchestra. Between 2006 and 2010. She recorded for the production of The Heritage of Cantonese Music of the University of Hong Kong. In 2012, she gave her first talk on yangqin on which occasion she presented a paper entitled A Retrospective Look at the Yangqin Music of Guangdong and Its Stylistic Schools. She also won critical acclaim with her two solo recitals on the yangqin in 2010 and 2012. Kwok has been dedicating herself to teaching and performing yangqin in recent years. She has toured France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, mainland China, Macao and Taiwan, and performed as soloist with the Academy Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Oriental Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong City Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble, etc. She participated as a member of the Hong Kong Cantonese Orchestra in the 2012 CCTV Ethnic Instrumental Music Television Competition – Traditional Folk Ensemble Section, organized by China’s Central Television, and the group won a Silver Award. In 2013, she founded the Hong Kong Dulcimer Institute, was invited to attend the 12th International Congress of Cimbalom World Association in Taiwan to give talks and concerts in October.

Presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department’s Our Music Talent Series, “Harpsichord Recital by Alice Chan” will be staged in September. The young harpsichordist will show her keyboard skills in a variety of compositions.

Under the theme “The art of harpsichord playing”, the programme will feature F. Couperin’s “Prélude in B-flat” and “Les Barricade Mystérieuses”, L. Couperin’s “Suite in F”, Purcell’s “A New Ground in E minor, Z. T. 682”, Mozart’s “12 Variations on Ah vous dirais-je, Maman, in C, K. 265”, J.C. Bach’s “Keyboard Sonata No. 2 in D, Op. 5” and Arne’s “Keyboard Sonata No. 4 in D minor”. She will also play three pieces by Rameau, namely “Les Sauvages”, “L’Entretien des Muses” and “Tambourin”.

Born in England, Sabrina Ma grew up in Hong Kong and currently lives in Berlin, Germany. She has been playing the percussion for more than 20 years and enjoys an international career as a vibrant soloist and an engaging chamber player.  She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Michigan, USA with Highest Honors under the eminent Professor Michael Udow in 2007 and finished her Master of Music degree with the esteemed Professor Isao Nakamura at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (Germany) in January 2013 with Distinction.  Sabrina’s vast repertoire includes classic works by leading contemporary composers such as Iannis Xenakis, Elliott Carter, Wolfgang Rihm, Yasuo Sueyoshi, Vinko Globokar and Rebecca Saunders. She cooperates intensively with composers and has premiered numerous new works for solo percussion as well as for chamber formations at various major festivals. She also enjoys experimenting with pop music and improvisation and working inter-disciplinarily with other artists. Her frequent participation at renowned festivals and academies ensures that she stays on the cutting edge of contemporary music. Sabrina has won prizes at multiple international competitions, such as the Special Talent Award at the Universal Marimba Competition in Belgium, the Pustjens Prize at the World Marimba Competition in Germany, Third Prize at the 4ème Concours International de Vibraphone Claude Giot in France, First Prize at the International Performers’ Competition for Marimba in the Czech Republic, First Prize at the Classical Marimba League Solo Artist Competition in the USA, First Prize in the Solo Category at the International Competition for Contemporary Music in Poland, the De Annelie Encouragement Prize at TROMP Percussion Competition in Holland. She was selected as semi-finalist at the prestigious and highly competitive Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York. In 2013 Sabrina convinced an exacting jury at the German Music Competition with her outstanding performance to choose her as one of four winners from more than 100 participants. Besides winning an additional scholarship, she became included in the artist roster of the German Federal Selection of Young Artists (BAKJK) and received a record deal with the GENUIN label for 2014.

Timothy Kwok
Praised for his ‘intense personal commitment to the music, the ability to vary his sound, and poetic imagination’ by the eminent American pianist James Tocco, Timothy Kwok has earned critical acclaims from different musicians including the leading suona maestro Guo Yazhi who praised Kwok as ‘one of the best pianists in the younger generation both in learning and integrity’. Kwok has performed in many places including New York City, Cincinnati, Prague, Taipei, Macao, Shenzhen, and his native Hong Kong, as well as at festivals such as International Keyboard Institute and Festival, Prague International Piano Institute, and Cincinnati’s Bearcat Piano Festival. As an active collaborative pianist, he has performed with violin virtuoso Huang Bin, erhu master Cheng Xiu-rong, and suona maestro Guo Yazhi. He was also invited to partner with Guo Yazhi in his album City Rhapsody, in which they made the world premiere recording of the suona and piano version of Birds Pay Tribute to the Phoenix. The album was published in 2010. His recent recording highlight is the recording of the complete Fauré-Naoumoff’sRequiem for solo piano on Radio Television Hong Kong Radio 4. Kwok was appointed as the only Tangeman Graduate Teaching Assistant of Early Music at the University of Cincinnati, USA, teaching Baroque interpretation, basso continuo and harpsichord performance. Since graduation, Kwok joined the Music Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong as a part-time piano and harpsichord faculty member. He is currently a full-time lecturer at the music programme under Macao Polytechnic Institute’s School of Art, teaching piano performance, chamber music and other performance-related classes.Born and raised in Hong Kong, Kwok began studying the piano at the age of six. His major mentors have included Mary Wu, Edmund Battersby, Eugene Pridonoff, Elisabeth Pridonoff, and Vivian Montgomery. He has also worked with masters like Gabriel Kwok, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, James Tocco, Emile Naoumoff, and Nelly Akopian-Tamarina, among others. Kwok graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Bacholer of Arts (Honours) degree in Music, and was named a Fellow of Trinity College London. With the C. F. Hu Memorial Scholarship and Jacobs School of Music Graduate Scholarship, Kwok furthered his postgraduate studies at Indiana University, USA, and graduated with Master of Music degree. Kwok then studied at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati with the full assistantship and stipend and earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance in 28 months, setting a new record in the history of the school.

Yap Man-shan was born in Hong Kong and began her piano studies at the age of six. She studied at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with Poon Tak and Gabriel Kwok and graduated with a first class honours Bachelor degree in Music. She received the Lady Fung Memorial Music Fellowship of the Asian Cultural Council in 2000 which enabled her to study with John Perry at the Aspen Music Summer Festival in the USA. In 2001, she furthered her postgraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music in the USA with Nelita True with the overseas scholarship from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund. She gained her Master of Music degree, Performer’s Certificate, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree. As the winner of several concerto competitions in Hong Kong and the USA, Yap has performed as soloist with various orchestras including The Hong Kong Academy Symphony Orchestra, Texas Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2011, she was invited to perform the ‘Temptations’ Piano Concerto by Dr. Yip Wai-hong with the Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra. She is also an active chamber music player and has appeared in many concerts in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Macao, Taipei, Tokyo and New York. Yap is currently on the piano faculty of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and a guest instructor at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has recorded several times for the Radio Television Hong Kong.