Peer Gynt de Edvard Grieg- David Wang © LIU Chen-hsiang
Organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym), the 34th Macao International Music Festival (MIMF) will be held from 25 September to 29 October. Tickets will be available through the Macau Ticketing Network from 10am on 18 September (Sunday). Ticketing services at the outlets, telephone and online booking will be available simultaneously. In order to cooperate with epidemic prevention and control measures, to reduce crowd gathering at the ticketing outlets and to safeguard the public health, an online reservation system has been set up for the first day of ticket sales. Members of the public who want to purchase tickets at the Macau Ticketing Network outlets from 10am to 12pm on the first day of ticket sales are required to make registration in advance.
Themed “Song of Tomorrow”, this edition of the MIMF will feature a number of programmes and outreach activities, gathering the melodies of joy, love and hope, inspiring the public to move forward with music and welcome a bright future. The programme The Complete Scriabin Piano Sonatas by Alexander Scriabin and the outreach activities, the talk “Chen Yunjie on Alexander Scriabin” and the “Piano Masterclass with Chen Yunjie”, will be cancelled due to the fact that the pianist Chen Yunjie will not be able to visit Macao as scheduled.
The opening performance Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg is an innovative reinterpretation of the classic through 22 characters performed by accomplished actor David Wang based on the script rewritten by renowned music critic Yuan-Pu Chiao, as well as music jointly performed by conductor Zhang Jiemin, the Macao Orchestra and the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Hailed as “the most powerful figures in China’s Western classical music scene”, the renowned conductor Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will join hands with erhuist Lu Yiwen and pianist Zee Zee to convey the boundless charm of music through a repertoire featuring both Chinese and Western genres. In Variations of Jade – The Journey of Tang Poetry, bass-baritone Shenyang, known for his diverse singing styles, will team up with pianist Zhang Yiming and local actor Wong Pak Hou, offering a feast of Tang poetry-inspired songs to the audience.
Admission to recorded programmes of “FIMM-tastic Music and Movie Night”, specially produced for MIMF, Voz e Violão by António Zambujo and English Renaissance Polyphony – a survey by The Tallis Scholars, is free. Interested parties can register online from 10am on 19 September (Monday) to 5:45pm on 27 September through the IC’s “Activities Registration System” at www.icm.gov.mo/eform/event or by phone through tel. no. 8399 6699 during office hours. Seats are limited. Each person can only register once for each performance and two places will be allocated. If the number of applicants exceeds the quota, a random draw will be conducted to determine the final list. Successful applicants will receive an SMS notification from the organiser and collect tickets at the Macau Ticketing Network outlets by presenting the SMS.
Various discounts are on offer at this year’s MIMF. The maximum indoor capacity for this edition of the MIMF programmes is limited to 75%. In line with the anti-epidemic guidelines issued by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of the Health Bureau, members of the public must present one of the following documents before entering the venue: proof of completion of the whole course of the COVID-19 primary vaccination series (which includes two doses of the inactivated vaccine or the mRNA vaccine) for at least 14 days, or a negative nucleic acid test result issued within 48 hours (self-paid). Those who fail to provide the aforementioned documentation are not allowed to enter the venue and the tickets will not be refunded. In addition, audience members must wear their own face mask, undergo body temperature checks, present a valid “Venue QR Code” (also known as “Venue Code”) and the “Macao Health Code” of the day, and follow the relevant anti-epidemic measures and crowd control measures on-site. Those with a fever or respiratory symptoms are not allowed to enter the venue.
For more information about the programmes, ticket purchases and discounts, please check the “Macao International Music Festival booklet (the PDF version can be downloaded at www.icm.gov.mo/fimm), follow the respective page on Facebook (search “Macao International Music Festival”), or subscribe to IC’s official WeChat account (IC_Art_Macao). Ticketing hotline: 2855 5555; ticketing website: www.macauticket.com.
