2007 Hong Kong and Macau

Nov 23, 2007 – Dec 2, 2007
Hong Kong, Macao

Festival info

Start: Nov 23, 2007

End: Dec 2, 2007

Locations: Hong Kong, Macao

Hosting member(s)

Description

From Contemporaneous Reports of the Festival

“Hong Kong hosted the World Music Days in 2007, only five years after it was last held there, so this country has shown tremendous and exceptional enthusiasm for the ISCM ideal. Often it is the case that a country hosts a festival and then needs about 20 years to recover energy and finances before it can consider doing it again – rather like the Olympics! To return with fresh ideas in so short a time frame is sign indeed of exceptional strength, commitment and organisational capacity. … Throughout the festival as a whole a high standard of organization was demonstrated not only by programmes and times running smoothly as announced, but also by good to excellent attendance levels at all events.”

— John McLachlan, “‘Music and Beyond’, Hong Kong and Macao, November 22 – December 1, 2007,”
World New Music Magazine 18 (2008), pp. 106-110.

“There were a total of 24 concerts in which 156 works, by an equal number of composers, were performed. These works encompassed almost every medium, instrumental combination and stylistic trend.

“In every festival, the submissions of the ISCM National Sections (in number slightly fewer than individual submissions), substantially determine what you hear. …. [N]ational sections try to anticipate the preferences of the international jury by submitting works within a stylistic range that gives more chances for approval by a jury of composers from diverse nationalities and aesthetic backgrounds. If the above is correct, then anything written within the broad trend of a ‘middle ground academic modernism’ is a safe bet. This is how we end up so often with very competently written similar sounding compositions, by composers from diverse countries.”

– Constantine A. Lignos, “‘Music and Beyond’, Hong Kong and Macao, November 22 – December 1, 2007,”
World New Music Magazine 18 (2008), pp. 98, 100.

Programme information
Locations