We arrived in Hong Kong bleary eyed to be greeted by the most amazing set of skyscrapers any of us had ever seen – it seems in Hong Kong the streets are effectively vertical instead of horizontal.
Our first performance, the following day, in the Hong Kong club got the tour off to an excellent start with a lovely concert, followed by a sumptuous dinner with Oxbridge alumni.
Thursday and Friday saw us doing a series of workshops in local schools (in total over 1,400 children!) and two concerts in the Chinese Methodist Church, Wan Chai – a church within a skyscraper – another novelty for us Westerners!
A well-earned day off on Saturday saw members of the choir climb “The Peak” (pretty obvious what that is!), explore the local markets, and visit a temple. The evening saw a brilliant boat trip around Hong Kong Island at sunset – a never to be forgotten experience for all. The evening rounded out with some members of the choir going to the bar at the top of the ICC – the sixth largest building in the world.
Sunday morning saw us singing Mozart and Tallis at St John’s Cathedral in a joint service with their choir. It was a beautiful and moving service, and we received a wonderful warm reception there. Straight from the cathedral we jumped on the Ferry to Macau, our second stop of the tour; we were blown away by the number of casinos here, it makes Las Vegas look like a poor cousin. Here we sang two concerts on Sunday, in the Mandarin House, and St Joseph’s seminary. The two venues were totally different, but equally brilliant, the Mandarin house a 18th Century traditional Chinese style house, very different to anything any of us had ever performed in before, and St Joseph’s a beautiful old Portuguese church, of a style that the choir is very familiar with. We sang our programme of 17th Century Portuguese music in a stunning acoustic to a wonderful reception – and the CDs flew off the shelves afterwards!
We have one more day in Macau, then fly to the mainland on Tuesday.
You can follow our progress in more detail at twitter.com/queenschoir