8VA Music Consultancy 8/27/25 8VA Music Consultancy 8/27/25

Musicus Society Announces Musicus Fest 2025

Celebrating Musicus Society’s 15th anniversary, the 2025 Musicus Fest features 10 concerts between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15.

Series of concerts uniting East and West runs Nov. 1 – Dec. 15

Hong Kong, August 27, 2025 — Musicus Society, an organization dedicated to promoting cross-cultural classical music collaborations internationally, announces Musicus Fest 2025, celebrating Musicus Society’s 15th anniversary. The 2025 Musicus Fest features 10 concerts between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15, at various Hong Kong venues, including a special presentation at Shenzhen Concert Hall in mainland China. The festival showcases outstanding local and international artists, among whom is cellist Trey Lee, the artistic director and co-founder of Musicus Society. He is joined by the English Chamber Orchestra—one of the most recorded chamber orchestras in the world—and by Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, comprising some of the best emerging artists from all over the world. Please see below for all program details.

“Musicus has always been a celebration of cultural diversity and the way different cultures come together to perform great music,” says Trey Lee. “This year, we’re delighted to perform with the English Chamber Orchestra, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, and spectacular guest soloists such as violinists Minna Pensola, Angela Chan and Jacques Forrestier, and the flow artist Chris Lam. We look forward to elevating Musicus as an international meeting point for cultural exchange, celebrating timeless music from the repertoire.”

Musicus Fest 2025 opens on Nov. 1 with Trey Lee and the English Chamber Orchestra, following their album Seasons Interrupted, last year’s climate change-themed major release on Signum Records that features world-premiere recordings of new arrangements by Trey Lee. It was the Hong Kong-born, Juilliard-trained cellist’s first collaboration with the esteemed ensemble. The concert, at Concert Hall (Hong Kong City Hall), highlights Piazzolla’s vibrant The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, in Trey Lee’s arrangement for solo cello and chamber orchestra, as featured on the album. The program also includes a string version of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” and Tchaikovsky’s “Chant d’automne,” from The Seasons. These works capture the essence of nature and the changing landscapes across the four seasons, inviting audiences on a captivating musical journey. Local students from the Ensemble Training program will perform excerpts from Boccherini’s String Quintet in E and Gustav Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite side-by-side with the musicians of the English Chamber Orchestra.

The performances by Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, the city’s leading chamber ensemble, are a highlight of the festival. Founded and directed by Trey Lee, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong is Musicus Society’s homegrown string ensemble, bringing together international prizewinners on promising career paths around the world. The group brings two programs to Shenzhen Concert Hall (in mainland China, Dec. 5) and Hong Kong City Hall (Dec. 7) under the leadership of the Finnish violinist Minna Pensola. Angela Chan and Jacques Forrestier, the joint winners of the 2024 Joseph Joachim Violin Competition, will join Musicus Soloists Hong Kong in Baroque masterpieces by Locatelli and Tartini for the festival’s grand finale on Dec. 7. The programs include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violin and Cello, as well as Satie’s Gymnopedies No. 1 & 3 arranged for strings, featuring the flow artist Chris Lam, who uses crystal balls and eight-rings, fusing visual arts, theater and music in an explosion of movement and emotion.

Musicus Fest 2025 also brings back Marco Polo’s Musical Encounter of East and West, its ever-popular family concert designed to introduce various Chinese and Western musical instruments to children. There will also be educational and outreach activities that include master classes and ensemble training, a series of highly anticipated Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories concerts held at unique venues in Hong Kong, and a viola recital by Hoi Yan-lok, the 2025 Musicus Young Artist Audition winner. For more information, please visit musicussociety.org.

Musicus Fest 2025

—Concert 1: Festival Opening: Trey Lee & English Chamber Orchestra—
Saturday, Nov. 1 | Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall

Tchaikovsky (arr. Paul Sherman): Chant d’automne from The Seasons (for string orchestra)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” for String Orchestra
Piazzolla (arr. Trey Lee): The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (for solo cello & string orchestra)

Cello: Trey Lee

Boccherini: String Quintet in E, G. 275, Op.11 No.5, III. Minuetto - Trio (for string orchestra)
Holst: St. Paul’s Suite, Op. 29 No. 2, IV. Finale (“The Dargason”)

Featuring English Chamber Orchestra playing side-by-side with Ensemble Training students

—Concert 2: Beethoven, Piazzolla and Evening Fantasy by Musicus Soloists Hong Kong—
Friday, Dec. 5 | Shenzhen Concert Hall (Co-presented by Shenzhen Concert Hall and the Leisure & Cultural Services Department)

Locatelli: Violin Concerto Op. 3, No.12 in D, “Harmonic Labyrinth”

Violin: Angela Chan

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (string orchestra version)
Satie: Gymnopedies No. 1 & 3 (string orchestra version)
Piazzolla (arr. Trey Lee): The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (for solo cello & string orchestra)

Cello: Trey Lee

—Concert 3: Festival Finale: The Devil and the Labyrinth by Musicus Soloists Hong Kong—
Sunday, Dec. 7 | Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall

Locatelli: Violin Concerto Op. 3 No.12 in D, “Harmonic Labyrinth”

Violin: Angela Chan

Satie: Gymnopedie No. 1 (string orchestra version)
Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor, “Devil’s Trill” (version with orchestra)

Violin: Jacques Forrestier

Satie: Gymnopedie No. 3 (string orchestra version)
Vivaldi: Concerto for Violin and Cello in F, RV 544

Violin: Minna Pensola | Cello: Trey Lee

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (string orchestra version)

—Concert 4: Harmonic Hour English Chamber Orchestra—
Sunday, Nov. 2 | Auditorium, Tuen Mun Town Hall

One-hour educational concert featuring works by Beethoven, Telemann, J. Strauss II and Coleridge-Taylor

—Concert 5: Next Generation Virtuosi: Viola Recital by Hoi Yan-lok—
Saturday, Nov. 15 | Theatre, Hong Kong City Hall

Featuring the 2025 Musicus Young Artist Audition winner in works by Prokofiev, Hindemith, Vieuxtemps and Brahms

—Concert 6: Family Concert: Marco Polo’s Musical Encounter of East & West—
Saturday, Dec. 6 | Concert Hall, Hong Kong City Hall

A family concert for ages 3+

—Concerts 7-10: The Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Project Grant: Musicus Heritage Stories—
December 13-15 | Heritage sites in Hong Kong

Series of community concerts

About Musicus Society
Musicus Society was founded in 2010 to become an international music organization featuring quality performances and world-class homegrown artists, with a mission to promote cross-cultural collaborations. Apart from the annual Musicus Fest, which provides a meeting point for artists from across the world, the Musicus Heritage Community Concert Series brings world-class artists to local heritage sites. Moreover, the Musicus Inspires! educational program aims to nurture aspiring young musicians in Hong Kong, as well as cultivating students from all social backgrounds. Musicus Soloists Hong Kong is a chamber ensemble directed and initiated by renowned cellist Trey Lee, comprising some of Hong Kong’s top next-generation artists.

About Musicus Fest
Musicus Fest is an international partnership for world‐class artists to collaborate, showcasing Hong Kong’s exceptional artists and working with young talents to bring their artistry to new heights. The festival gives Hong Kong artists and students what their counterparts elsewhere have long enjoyed: the chance to elevate themselves to a higher level of artistic excellence through meaningful interaction with distinguished artists from different parts of the world.

Since the launch of Musicus Fest in 2013, over 400 artists from Albania, Australia, Austria, Canada, Mainland China, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S. have appeared on stage in Hong Kong, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Bashmet, Noah Bendix‐Balgley and Bruno Canino, among others.

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The Strad: Postcard from Hong Kong: Musicus Fest

Cross-cultural and intergenerational exchange is the engine that drives cellist Trey Lee’s Musicus Fest, as Thomas May discovered at its eleventh edition

Cloud-piercing skyscrapers nestled amid sea, mountains and lush green spaces: Hong Kong is a captivating marvel of stunning yet harmonious contrasts. This densely populated, cosmopolitan metropolis surrounded by the South China Sea is best known as a financial hub and magnet for shoppers and culinary adventurers.

It’s also an environment particularly well suited to Musicus Society’s mission of promoting cross-cultural collaboration. ‘“East meets West” might be a cliché elsewhere, but in Hong Kong, it is literally what happens,’ said cellist Trey Lee, artistic director of the Hong Kong society he co-founded with his sister Chui-Inn Lee in 2010. ‘This may even be the original East-meets-West centre of the world.’

The Strad
By Thomas May

Cross-cultural and intergenerational exchange is the engine that drives cellist Trey Lee’s Musicus Fest, as Thomas May discovered at its eleventh edition

Although he has long been based in Berlin, Lee is also a musical thought leader who maintains tight connections with his native Hong Kong. He resolved to establish Musicus Society as a result of his personal experience studying abroad (initially in the US, subsequently across Europe). ‘One thing that always struck me when I worked with other musicians or won competitions was that nobody was expecting to meet a cellist from Hong Kong,’ Lee explained during my visit. ‘Hong Kong has so many young people studying classical music; I think the world needs to know that the city is not just a business and finance capital.’

South China Morning Post: Review | Young violin soloist captivates in Arvo Pärt work with Hong Kong string ensemble, veteran piano soloist doesn’t spare the horses in Grieg concerto

Variety is the spice of life. When a new ensemble emerges and offers something beyond the customary “meat-and-two-veg” billing (a symphony preceded by an overture and concerto) of the flagship orchestras, it adds richness to the music scene.

The Musicus Soloists of Hong Kong, an ensemble launched in 2022 by the Musicus Society and its founder, acclaimed cellist Trey Lee, should be commended both for their selection of repertoire and their performance at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall on November 21.

The young players chose an unusual programme, including rarely aired gems by Grieg and Sibelius, and offered a glimpse into Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s world of “holy minimalism”, before performing Grieg’s revered Piano Concerto with a strings-only accompaniment directed from the keyboard by award-winning French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie.

South China Morning Post
By Christopher Halls

South China Morning Post: ‘Elite’ string ensemble a showcase for Hong Kong’s musical talent, says founder Trey Lee

On November 26, a Hong Kong string ensemble will make its debut at Musicus Fest’s 10th anniversary concert, a celebration of classical music launched in the city in 2013 by the cellist Trey Lee.

The ensemble, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, intends to help its young members stand out as individual performers and nurture their careers, according to Lee.

For the past 10 years, as well as staging the Musicus Fest, Lee’s Musicus Society charity has tirelessly championed home-grown talent and taken classical music to Hong Kong schools through education programmes, the commissioning of new works and concerts around the world.

South China Morning Post
By Enid Tsui

On November 26, a Hong Kong string ensemble will make its debut at Musicus Fest’s 10th anniversary concert, a celebration of classical music launched in the city in 2013 by the cellist Trey Lee.

The ensemble, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, intends to help its young members stand out as individual performers and nurture their careers, according to Lee.