Cycling Piano, Jazzfest, The Emporer, and more! – Explore WKCDA’s Programmes this Season

Cycling Piano – A new mobile street performance initiative at the Art Park and Waterfront Promenade

Starting from August 2021, the Cycling Piano carrying two young musicians and a vintage upright will pedal around the Art Park and Waterfront Promenade to share free live music every Saturday and Sunday.

Designed and created by Hong Kong upcycling artist Kevin Cheung, the one-of-a-kind tricycle incorporates a 1960s Hong Kong-made Morrison piano from Tsang Fook Piano Company and provides a mobile stage for two up-and-coming local jazz musicians.

Visitors get to enjoy the music, snap some Instagram-worthy pictures and tag our whimsical new stage-on-wheels with #CyclingPiano! Performers are paired in surprise combinations each week. Check out the latest schedule from our website and get to know the participating musicians!

Photo credit: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Photo credit: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Photo credit: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Freespace Jazz Fest – All that jazz in one weekend with local and international superstars

This October, Freespace Jazz Fest returns for the third year with a programme of indoor and outdoor music and art events celebrating the innovation and diversity of one of the world’s most popular forms of music. This year we shine a spotlight on Hong Kong, bringing together a cross-generational host of top home-grown talent and a range of musical styles – from jazz reinterpretations of classical pieces, traditional big band, and experimental music to world music fusion.

Throughout the weekend there are ticketed headliners in The Box and free live music in and around Freespace and the Art Park. Stay tuned and more details will be announced on our website.

Photo credit: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

The Future of Performance: New Creations

Facing a COVID-19 world, many artists, curators and institutions have relied on digital space as an approximation to gathering for live performance. But “digital” as we know it is limited. What if we pushed the bounds of “digital” to include dreams, game worlds and technologies yet to be imagined? What if the futures of “live” performance allow us to translocate ourselves across sites, realms and realities where, despite everything, we can always come together?

In response to these questions, Freespace is producing three new works by Hong Kong artists in Performing Arts Season 2021–2022: Presence, Only when you sleep, it works and A Thousand Plateaus. They integrate onsite, online and body-based experiences, where audiences become central to co-creating these futures of live performance.

The experimental participatory experience A Thousand Plateaus took the lead and staged successfully in Freespace in August 2021, transforming the audience into central participants in a co-created exploration of sensory perception and identity. Details of the other two upcoming performances will be announced on our website soon.

Photo credit: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Photo credit: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Photo credit: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Winter Holiday Comedy: The Emperor

Count down to the New Year with a brand new Cantonese opera comedy!

The Emperor is an original comic Cantonese opera from Canto Op’s creative duo, Wyborn Leung and Keith Lai. As the unsmiling Crown Prince prepares to become Emperor, the court scrambles with questions about his ability to rule. But when the prince is so captivated by the performance staged for the Empress Dowager’s birthday that he suddenly disappears with the troupe, the question becomes how to lure him back in time for his enthronement!

The opera will premiere in a special late-night performance on New Year’s Eve, 31 December 2021, and close curtain on 1 January 2022. Join us for the celebration countdown in the Grand Theatre during the show! Visit our website for details!

Photo credit: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

For more information of West Kowloon coming programmes, please stay tuned with us!

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