The Works：Two programmes from HKAF: Circa Opus & Indian classical music (veena & violin), Kungfu in

We’re taking a look at new takes on two different forms of classical music, as represented at this this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival. The first of those is the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, now accompanied by acrobats, dance and the art of the circus in “Opus” by the Australian physical theatre group, Circa.
Music in the Indian Carnatic tradition is literally thousands of years older than the music of Shostakovich. But even that doesn’t mean its interpreters can’t take a new approach to it. In the group “Strings Attached” husband and wife duo, violinist R. Kumaresh and his wife Jayanthi Kumaresh combine the Western violin with the Indian instrument described as “the instrument of the Gods”, the veena.
Think of a setting for kung fu, and Africa is not likely to be the first place to come to mind. But the popularity of Hong Kong kung fu films in the 1970s and of stars like Bruce Lee, and later Jackie Chan and Jet Li, took the martial art form all over the world. On show at Hanart TZ Gallery until the middle of April, “Kung Fu in Africa” showcases more than 30 kung fu movie posters hand-painted in Ghana between 1985 and 1999, a period they now refer to as the “Golden Age”.
Over the past few years a cappella singing has been getting more popular, promoted even by television reality and talent shows, and movies based on collegiate a cappella groups. A cappella festivals have also sprung up in many places, including Hong Kong where this year’s Hong Kong a cappella Festival started just last weekend, with groups from Hong Kong, the United States, Japan, and France. We’re delighted to have the French group, Ommm in the studio with us today.