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Dearest to Monster Hunter – film music by Hong Kong composer to get the full stage treatment in orchestral concert

Hong Kong Sinfonietta devotes a programme to the film scores of award-winning composer Leon Ko, who penned the soundtracks to movies including Perhaps Love and The Great Magician

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Award-winning composer Leon Ko is the associate artist at the Hong Kong Sinfonietta this season. Photo: Nora Tam

From Canto-pop and musicals to Chinese opera, composer Leon Ko Sai-tseung has dabbled in a wide range of musical genres. Next week, Hong Kong audiences will get a taste of another, when the Hong Kong Sinfonietta perform a concert dedicated to film soundtracks.

Ko says his all-time favourite film score is from Cinema Paradiso, written by Ennio Morricone. It’s this work that influenced his own compositions.

Ko (left) will perform alongside the Hong Kong Sinfonietta at The Amazing Filmphony. Photo: Nora Tam
Ko (left) will perform alongside the Hong Kong Sinfonietta at The Amazing Filmphony. Photo: Nora Tam

“[Hearing] that score ... was one of the pivotal moments in my film scoring journey because in very few films [do] you have that first few notes [that] immediately [pull] you into that world, and I think Cinema Paradiso did that. It opened with the music,” he says.

In the upcoming concert, The Amazing Filmphony, Ko will take the audience on a journey to revisit some of the compositions he’d penned for films such as Perhaps Love, The Great Magician, Dearest and Monster Hunt.

Other than the Sinfonietta’s music director Yip Wing-sie, Ko will also have four singers – Rick Lau, Jarita Wan, Margaret Cheung and Jordan Cheng – help bring his music to life. Ko will also put in a very rare stage appearance and perform some of the theme songs himself.

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