Harmonica concert on 10 Feb

The Hong Kong Harmonica Music Center will hold its annual concert on coming Friday, 10 February at the Hong Kong City Hall Theatre. Please see the poster at http://www.harmonica.com.hk.

Chinese New Year Radio Broadcast

The Hui King's Trio appeared live on radio for a live broadcast, with simultaneous cast on Internet, of a programme to celebrate the Chinese New Year at 3:30pm on Radio One, RTHK, on Wednesday, 1st February, 2006, when they collaborated with pianist Rachel Cheung and Er Hu player Chu Wan-pian to play a new music piece 《喜洋洋狂想曲》composed exclusively for this particular occasion by Mr. Mui Kwong-chiu.

Those who missed the realtime broadcast can listen to the recording from the program archive 香 港 電 台 新 春 團 拜. The performance starts at about 15 minutes from the beginning of the archive; the music piece is about 5 minutes long.

Top Ten Music Highlights

We are pleased that the achievement of the Hong Kong delegation in the World Harmonica Festival has been selected as one of the Top Ten Music Highlights 2005 organised by Radio 4 of Radio Television Hong Kong and is ranked third in the voting, receiving 73.9% of the votes:

http://www.rthk.org.hk/special/musichighlights2005/ (in Chinese)

Listen to the Cantonese programme announcing the results:

http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio4/culturalvibe/20060123.html

(20:31 -28:18)

News about the achievements of the harmonica community have been nominated to the Top Ten Music Highlights for 6 consecutive years, and came within Top Ten for five times. Thanks to everybody who has been involved in realizing these achievements and who has been supporting the harmonica community!

Photos of the Winners Concert

Special thanks to Tommy and Ken for taking excellent photos during the rehearsal and the concert.

Ken's photos are now readily viewable on his photo album.

DVD of competition and concert performances

The DVD contains over 2 hours of music recorded live at the competitions and concerts of the World Harmonica Festival. It will be on sale at the Winners Concert on 21 January 2006 (Saturday) at Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall. Come to the concert and buy the DVD at a special price!

P.S. Members of the delegation will receive one complimentary copy.

Voting for Top Ten Music Highlights

The achievement of the Hong Kong delegation in the World Harmonica Festival has been selected as one of the 20 candidates of the Top Ten Music Highlights 2005 organised by Radio 4 of Radio Television Hong Kong:

http://www.rthk.org.hk/special/musichighlights2005/ (in Chinese)

The voting will run until 15 Jan, while result of the final Top Ten will be announced on 23 Jan. Your support in participating in the voting would be very much appreciated.

Winners Concert on 21st Jan, 2006

我們將於香港大會堂音樂廳舉行一場祝捷音樂會。詳情請參閱單張及海報。
We will be holding a Winners Concert at the City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong. Please read the leaflet and poster for details.


上圖：單張正頁 Above: Concert leaflet (front)
下圖：單張背頁 Below: Concert leaflet (back)

下圖：海報 Below: Concert poster

香港口琴協會代表團成員對世界口琴節的隨筆

「嘩！」當大會評判宣佈了世界口琴大合奏(公開組)的亞軍是奧地利隊的時候，我們(香港隊)都禁不住歡呼起來... 欲看全文，請按此處

Breaking News

The Hui King's Trio and Tam Sir will appear in the programme 文化新領域 on TVB Jade Channel at 9am this morning, 10th December. Enjoy!

Compliment Letter from Secretary for Home Affairs, Hong Kong Government

Dr. Patrick Ho, Secretary for Home Affairs, himself a violinist, congratulated the Association's Chairman and the players.

Photo Competition

Want to see some of the best photos that the Delegation has taken? We are holding a photography competition to let members post their photos on a dedicated blog.

The submission closing date is 24th November. Photos will be judged by the members votes during the Celebration Dinner on 27th November.

Closing Ceremony - 6th Nov

Click here to see more photos

Rack Harmonica Workshop - 3rd Nov

Click here to see more photos.

Two of the delegation members attended this inspiring workshop. Eddie used the suit case as a drum. Not shown in the photo were the drum stick that was controlled by the left foot, and a tambourine that was controlled by the right foot.

Junior Delegation Members on Radio - 20 Nov

Junior members of the delegation were interviewed on Nancy Loo's "Children's Corner 親親童樂日" radio programme and broadcasted on RTHK Radio 4 at 5-6pm on 20th November. The interview was conducted in Cantonese. The Junior Harmonica Band played the winner music piece in the programme. If you missed the broadcast, you can listen to the programme archive at http://www.rthk.org.hk/

Compliment eMail from Mr. Dror Adler

We are very honoured that Mr. Dror Adler, the chord master of the Adler Trio, sent the following email to our chairman about the performance in the Gala concert:

-----Original Message-----

From: Dror Adler [mailto:adler3@bezeqint.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 5:07 AM
To: pcho01@netvigator.com
Subject: Hello from Israel


Dear PC,

Unfortunately we did could not spend time together at Trossingen. We were so busy , as probably you were.

I must congratulate you on the concert you have conducted on the Gala concert.

This is a tremendous job! actually it is a philharmonic of harmonicas! . I think HK is the place where harmonica is taken in the most serious way in the world.

I was fascinated by the first composition which brought the sounds of hong Kong. I felt I was there! and the second composition was also so beautiful and unique.

We looked for you after the concert but did not find you.

We all salute you and send our most sencere complements on a brilliant concert.

Please convey our complements to all harmoinca players in HK. We hope next time we meet we will have more time together.

Best regards,

Dror

Harmonica Factory Tour and Other Day-time Activities - 2nd Nov

Click here to see more photos.

Delegation Members on Radio - 18th Nov

Several committee members and winners of the Association's delegation in the World Harmonica Festival 2005 were interviewed on Nancy Loo's "Belle Nuit" (弦外之音）radio programme tonight (18th November), which was live broadcasted on FM Radio 4, RTHK, from 10:00pm to midnight. The programme was conducted in Cantonese. The winners played a few of the winning pieces live.

Interested overseas listeners could tune to the Internet live broadcast at http://www.rthk.org.hk/

RTHK also keeps a copy of the radio programmes on-line for about 6 months, so if you miss the live broadcast, you can still listen to it afterwards.

6th November, early morning

Click here to see more photos.


The morning of 6th November was definitely a memorable one - not just because of the prizes we were going to win. After all the competitions and performance, we now found time to relax. Credits should be given to Tam Sir, the 24-hr "tour guide", who entertained us on the coach. We were so happy that no one bothered thinking about the excitement of the results announcement and prize awards.

5th November, morning

Click here to see more photos.

Above: The Schulerorchester Hohnerklang. Below: The Hong Kong Harmonica Association Harmonica Chamber Orchestra

Today was the last day of competitions. The only one left were the senior orchestra and the junior band.

As in the last two days, we had breakfast at 7 am. The senior band gathered at the dining room after breakfast for the last round of practice. We played the Rossini piece first at ultra high speed to test our limit and ability to recover from errors. Then we played again at our normal speed for the last time.

Upon arrival at the competition venue, we found that the first competition team had already set up their seats. They were a large band of about 50 people. There were altogether 9 teams, and we were the second team to play, which is good because after playing, we could relax and enjoy watching other competitors' show.

Came our turn and we executed what we had been practising. We thought we did fairly well, but then there were many strong competitors. So we don't know the chance of winning, and we'll find out tomorrow morning.

At 11:30 the junior band competed at the same venue. There were only 2 teams. Our junior band played first, followed by the German team. The competition ended at noon.

Groups Competition - 4th Nov

The Groups Competition was held at Kath. Gemeindehaus in the morning of 4th November. Click here to see more photos.

Arrival in Schwenningen - 1st Nov

Click here to see more photos.

We are now reporting from Central Hotel, Schwenningan, Germany.

The delegation gathered atChak Lap Kok at 9:15pm on Halloween night, 31 October. Checked in at the airline counter, and took lots of group pictures. There must be some 15 to 20 cameras around. The flight took 13 hours from HK to Zurich, Swizerland, our first stop. Again we took a lot of group photos. From Zurich to Schwenningan, we came in two coaches. The coach ride was very comfortable - much better than the aircraft.

At 9:30am, we arrived at Central Hotel, 30 minutes before plan. The hotel is not very big. It has 4 floors, most of the delegates were assigned to the 3rd floor, and the rest to 2nd and 4th floor. We probably account for 80% of the guests in these few days.

Tam Sir once again reminded the team to behave properly, e.g. keep the place clean, try our best not to disturb other guests even though we have to practise. After settling down, we took a walking tour to nearby sites. The weather today is beautiful. It was slightly raining when we boarded the coach, but as we approached Germany, we saw the clouds clearing, and by the time we went out to the streets, the rain had already stopped. We could see some blue sky, and the air was fresh and clean. Today is probably the most relaxing for all of us. In spite of the long plane ride, we are pretty much free all day long. We took many photos in this short walking tour, and admired at the clean environment, the neat buildings, and the falling autumn leaves.

We stopped by the train station, waited to see the train arrive and leave. At 12:30 we were back to the hotel. We crossed the street to have lunch. And soon we learned the lesson. The restaurant was probably not used to serving 50 visitors at the same time, so it took them a long time to serve everybody. We also wondered if they have enough plates and silverware for serving the food.

After lunch we went back to the hotel to take a short break. At 3:00pm Tam Sir led a group of 15 people to visit the neighbouring town Villengen. While the rest of the group stayed in the hotel, many of them practising. For dinner, we ate in the hotel's dining room which we had reserved. The room was just big enough for our group. We also met Mr. Mueller of the festival organizer. When Mr. Mueller arrived, we had just finished the main course and started to celebrate 4 members of the group whose birthday lie in this week. We discussed several issues with Mr. Mueller, and chatted for a few more things. It was past 8pm when we said good night to Mr. Mueller and the plan for a one hour band practice was not materialsed. Many members were so tired. Some of them nearly fell asleep during the meal, so they headed straight to bed after dinner, while some others chose to practise more.

Solo Chromatic (with Test Piece) Competition 3rd-4th Nov

The Solo Chromatic with Test Piece Competition was held at the Kath. Gemeindehaus in two time slots: afternoon of 3rd November for the test piece; afternoon of 4th November for the own choice piece. Click here to see more photos.

Solo Chromatic Adult Competition - 4 Nov

The Solo Adult Competition was held at Evang. Gemeindehaus in the morning of 4th November. Click here to see more photos.

Open Category Competition - 4th Nov

The Open Category Competition was held at the Kesselhaus in the afternoon of 4th November. Click here to see more photos.

Trios Competition - 3rd Nov

The Trios competition was held at the Evang. Gemeindehaus in the afternoon of 3rd November. Click here to see more photos.

Solo Diatonic Tremolo Competition - 3rd Nov

The Solo Diatonic Tremolo Competition was held at Evang. Gemeindeau in the morning of 3rd November. Click here to see more photos.

Opening Ceremony and Welcome Party - 2nd Nov

The Hohnerklang Orchestra plays in the Opening Ceremony. Click here to see more photos.

Competition Results

As of 9th November evening, everyone from the delegation team (maybe except our videographer) has returned to Hong Kong. The mements of our experience will be unveiled here in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the festival organizer has published the full competition results on their web site
http://www.whf-2005.de

You can also find a photo gallery on the web site.

Give Me Five!

6th November, 2005

It's 13:44 Germany time, and we would like to bring this exciting news to our readers, especially those in Hong Kong.

The Delegation has won a total of 7 prizes, including 1st Prize in the following 5 categories:

- Trios
- Orchestra
- School Orchestra
- Solo Chromatic Adult
- Solo Chromatic with Test Piece

which means every player in the delegation is a winner! We have too much to say in this glimse of free time, so until we are back, this is the short news that we'd like to share with all of you.

We're back

Apologies for not showing up for 2 days. The time is 00:30 6th November. The network in our hotel rooms has been down and we just got back from the Gala concert. We'll report the past 3 days' activities in due course.

Day 1 Activities

It's now 25 minutes past mid-night, and the corridor of the 3rd floor of our hotel is very much alive. In his room, the writer could hear clearly voices of maybe 10 people and the sound of playing harmonica. People are busy practising, busy planning for the next day.

Breakfast was taken in the hotel restaurant. Everybody was quite happy with the food, the bread was especially fresh with crispy skin and yet soft inside. We can eat all we could, and service was good. "But in a few days you'll be bored 'cause the same food is served every day," warned Louisa.

We set off to visit the Hohner Harmonica Factory at 9:30. The entire team was divided into two groups, with one group visiting from one end of the path, and the other visiting in the opposite direction. Especially for the harmonica players, we were very fascinated by the manufacturing process, some of which is fully automatic, some semi-automatic, and some manual. Each reed had to be placed strictl aligned with the slot, otherwise the reed would not be able to vibrate freely. we sawa tuner machine that was specially designed for the harmonica, and that was quite interesting. We saw an assembly line for assembling a harmonica, like screwing together the comb, reed plates and cover. Eventually, when a harmonica is finished production, it would be testing by a worker, and guess what, the worker would play the harp and listen to it. If there was problem, the harp would be repaired. So every harp you buy has been played before.

Beore noon, we arrived at the Konzerthaus to complete the registration process. A room was set up for repairing harmonica by two experts. The price of replacing a reed was 15 Euros, which was pretty expensive.

There was a small cafeteria serving some simple food, and quite a large area of tables and seats. Many people gathered at the tables to chat, and some of them played the harp, some were showing off their talents, while others just to enjoy do it with other harp lovers whom they knew or had never met before.

At 1pm, many of us had to go back to the hotel to pick up our harps for practicing the orchestra competition pieces. In the afternoon, we were divided into 3 groups. A small group of 4 people would to go visit a nearby town. A second group would visit the harmonica museum, and the third group went to the music conservatory for practicing.

At 7pm, we all met at the Konzerthaus for the Opening Ceremony. Speeches were delivered by the organizer, the mayor of Trossingen, and the boss of Hohner company, in both German and English. In between the speeches, the Hohner band played music. The band consisted of about 26 players, with 10 chromatic players, 9 accordion players, 1 double bass harp, 1 chord harp, 2 keboard, 1 bass guitar, and 3 percussion. This was the first time for most of us to see so many accordion players in a band. The ceremony ended at about 8:30, and food was served. Then there was an area where guest harpists would perform. It was a much casual show. People could come and go as they liked, eating and watching the performers at the same time. A few of the audience would be dancing with the music.

Some of us came back to the hotel before the scheduled time bus pick-up time, and about 15 of us stayed on to enjoy the show. By the time all of us came back, it was about 11:00pm.

Bon Voyage!

Final count-down.

In a few hours, the delegation will be taking off to Germany. Everyone is now busy packing, checking any missing items, and some are hurrying home from their office or schools. Some of us will be bringing special equipment (e.g. amplifiers) and merchandising (for sales) along. May God bless every one of us for a safe, enjoyable and memorable trip. After we take off, we will be cut off from the network for, say, 24 hours. Until then...

Wish us good luck!

Reminder to the Delegation

Monday, 31st October

The following message was sent by Tam Sir this morning to all members as a reminder:

Dear All, After our hard preparation and practice for nearly 6 months, we are now going to enjoy a nice and memorable journey to the 2005 World Harmonica Festival in Trossingen. Please remember to bring along with you: PASSPORT, HKID CARD, MONEY, BOW TIE, HARMONICAS, DAILY ITINERARY SHEETS AND PERSONAL BELONGINGS etc.

Also, do remember to tell your parents, relatives, children and friends to visit our web-site for the daily update of our activities in Germany. Just go the the offical web site of HKHA www.hkharmonica.org and click on the links 2005年度世界口琴節專頁 Page of World Harmonica Festival 2005 for details. I will do my best and work with each of you in Germany to make our trip a successful one. Meet you all at the Airport tonight at 9:15pm sharp.

Best wishes.

More Pre-Tour Concert Photos - 24 Oct: HK on Stage

This snapshot was taken during the Pre-Tour Concert on 24th Oct. To see more photos, please click on the link below:
More Pre-Tour Concert Photos - 24 Oct: HK on Stage

Performance at MTR - 28 Oct

Click here to see more photos.

Practice Session on 22nd Oct

This photo was taken during the practice session on Saturday, 22nd Oct. More photos can be found here.

Getting Ready to Pack

Hmmm... looks like an unbrella would be useful.
Courtesy of www.weather.com

Another Late Night Committee Meeting

Just three and a half days to go, and we will be taking off to Germany!

After our senior band practice last night, we headed for the usual restaurant where we held our committee meeting. The following were discussed:

• Assignment of photographers for the events. There are parallel sessions that our members are involved in for (a) 3rd Nov afternoon, (b) 4th Nov morning and (c) 4th Nov afternoon.
• Video recording of the competition sessions
• Uniform for departure from HK airport, harmonica factory visit, Opening Ceremony, orchestra competition and performance
• Banner for group photo taking occasions
• Merchandise sales arrangement
• Daily news publishing on web site and Blogs
• Accomodation and transportation
• Arrangement for arrival in HK airport on return journey
• Member phone list for team leader keeping
• Competition name list by category
• Accessories for orchestral performance/competition
• Media communication
• Review of 24th Oct concert
  

Meeting was adjourned at mid-night.

Living Art in MTR

Date: 28th Oct (Friday)

Time: 18:00 - 18:45

Venue: MTR Hong Kong Station

Following the success of our concert on 24th Oct, we are going to do a live show on 28th Oct. Yes, that is tomorrow! Again, we will be playing some of the pieces that will be used in the competitions as another warm up exercise. The differences between this and the last performance are:

1. Programme - No duplication of the pieces played on 24th.
2. No solos and orchestras due to limitation of the venue
3. Environment - Last time it was a formal concert. This time it will be in an open area with lots of commuters walking by.

Programme

Group Ensemble: String Sonata No.1 1st Movt.
Composer: Rosinni
Performer: KCCCK

Trio: Cantabile & Waltz
Composer: Paganinni
Performer: K C Cube

Duet: Sonate
Composer: Telemann
Performer: HKCE

Duet: Allegro
Composer: Beethoven
Performer: King's Duet

Group Ensemble: Water Music
Composer: Handel
Performer: K2C3

Duet: Adagio and Allegro from Sonata No. 1
Composer: J. R. Loeillet

Performer: Harmony

Trossingen City Map

The city map of Trossingen is extracted from the festival organizer's website. Competitors, especially those who booked entries in multiple categories, should familiar themselves with the relative locations of the venues.

Submission of Scores to the Competition Jury Panel

This is a gentle reminder to our HKHA competitors in the festival.

Please note the following quotes from the festival organizer's web page about competition regulation:

"When registering for categories 1 and 2, all competitors must at the same time send a copy of the sheet music for their own-choice piece to the festival organisers. These will be passed on to the appropriate panel of jurors before the festival, so that they canprepare themselves in advance. This ensures that the judging can be conducted fairly and objectively."

"minus points if the xcores of the piecesthat are played are not handed over to the jury before the actual performance (not applicable for the categories 3, 4, 5, 6 and the open category 11)"

In summary:

- For categories 1 and 2, you should have already sent your scores to the organizer

- For categories 7 (TrioCategory), 8 (Group), 9 (Harmonica Orchestra) and 10 (School Orchestra), you should be preparing a copy of the scores for the jury panel's use.

Pre-Tour Concert Rehearsal Snapshots

This photo was taken during the afternoon rehearsal at Run Run Shaw Hall yesterday. To view more photos, please go to MW's blog: Pre-Tour Concert Day - 24th Oct 2005

Sight Seeing Maps of Schwenningen and Villingen

Above: Villingen. Below: Swenningen


"I am your all-purpose tour guide," proudly proclaims Tam Sir. He has collected plenty of travel information for the twin city Swenningen-Villingen where we will be staying during the Festival. The accompanying persons of the delegation will never have to worry about being bored while their spouses or children attend the festival events. "Just follow Tam Sir" has become the slogan of the week.