Young Concerts for the Young

Starting tonight and during a whole week there will be plenty of music played by local young musicians and for the young in Macau. Admission is free.
‘The Campus Concert – Sound of Pure Strings’, co-organised by Macao Polytechnic Institute, the Cultural Affairs Bureau and The Macao Orchestra, will be held in the MPI Auditorium tonight, March 19, at 7 pm.
Regarded as another kind of relaxation in our busy daily lives and aiming to further promote music in a cultural atmosphere, the organisers chose a programme with a Springtime feeling.
The programme for the concert includes Pachelbel’s ‘Canon’, Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons: Violin Concerto in E major, Op. 8, No. 1, RV 269, "La primavera"’, Mozart’s ‘Divertimento, KV 136, D Major (1st  Movement)’, Grieg’s  ‘“Last Spring” from Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34’, Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings, Op. 11’, and Elgar’s ‘Serenade, Op. 20 in E minor’.
From tomorrow, Saturday, 20 until the 29, Macau Youth Symphonic Band will perform also in a series of concerts integrated in the Macau Band Fair. Titled “The Music World of Hayao Miyazaki’s Animations”.
Led by conductor Leong Pui Long, programme includes Joe Hisaishi’s ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’; Spirited Away; Selections from “Princess Mononoke  and “Kiki’s Delivery Service”; “Kurenai no buta”; “Laputa” Castle in the Sky; and the Suite “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”.
Founded in 1997, the Macau Youth Symphonic Band is directed by the Macau Band Association and aims to provide local young musicians, which consists of local school band players, university students and enthusiasts, an opportunity to have proper music training. They are also acted as an active role to promote wind band music locally.
The band had participated Chia-yi International Band Festival in Taiwan soon after the establishment and it has frequently performed in Macau Band Fairs and various events. It had also toured in Guangzhou with the event of 12th APBDA and performed with different wind bands in August 2002.
The band has performed with international groups including the Eastman wind Ensemble (USA) in the grand auditorium of Macau Cultural Center in June 2004. Again in the opening concert of the 14th Asian Pacific Band Directors Association conference, held in August 2006.
Macau Band Directors Association, founded in 1996, is a nonprofit association open to anyone interested in wind bands, namely band directors, teachers and students who want to develop their expertise in conducting, teaching and performing skills. Every year the association holds the Macau Band Fair to attain the exchange between local and international wind bands. The association joined the Asia & Pacific Band Directors’ Association in 1998, and successfully hosted the 14th APBDA conference in August 2006.