Hong Kong Cultural Centre, which encompasses multiple performance spaces including the 2,019-seat concert hall that is home to the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
“On January 27, Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department formally announced that its facilities were closed and all programming cancelled until further notice” due to anxieties about the spread of coronavirus, writes Ken Smith in Tuesday’s (1/28) Musical America (subscription required). “On January 28, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra announced the cancellation of Jaap van Zweden’s all-Beethoven program featuring pianist Rudolf Buchbinder scheduled for January 31 and February 1.… The largest potential casualty of the closings is the Hong Kong Arts Festival, which is scheduled to open on February 8 with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s world premiere of Alexander Goehr’s The Master Said.… That performance—currently pending a government reassessment of the situation on February 3, according to Sinfonietta Chief Executive Margaret Yang—will presumably impact the entire festival, including two programs by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 12 and 13…. In Beijing, the National Center for Performing Arts has announced a full lockdown from January 24 until further notice…. Shanghai Symphony Hall—the administrative home of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and its educational programs—is shuttered completely until February 8.… The Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan, the city where the virus originated,” has cancelled all events through March 28.
