Music Director Emeritus: Yip Wing-sie
Music Director: Christoph Poppen
Associate Conductor: Vivian Ip

One of Hong Kong’s flagship orchestras, Hong Kong Sinfonietta has achieved significant local and international recognition for its passionate performances and innovative programming which have brought music closer to the community.

Since 1999, Hong Kong Sinfonietta has collaborated with an illustrious array of international musicians and groups, including in recent years Nicolas Altstaedt, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Vilde Frang, Ilya Gringolts, Martin Helmchen, James MacMillan, Sergei Nakariakov, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Fazıl Say. Hong Kong Sinfonietta is a regular guest at international arts festivals and has toured 48 cities around the world.

As an avid believer of keeping music alive and contemporary, the orchestra performs year-round with about 100 performances a season, presenting not only standard orchestral repertoire but also more than 90 newly commissioned works over the past 20 years. To nurture and create opportunities for the next generation of artists, the orchestra successfully held two editions of the Hong Kong International Conducting Competition in 2018 and 2023, and is bringing back the "Auditions On Stage" series for the piano in 2025, following the acclaimed first edition for the violin in 2022.

Hong Kong Sinfonietta has thrived under the leadership of Yip Wing-sie, one of Asia’s foremost conductors who was the orchestra’s Music Director from 2002-2020, and has been Music Director Emeritus from 2020 onwards. In April 2023, conductor, violinist, chamber musician and pedagogue Christoph Poppen took on the post of Music Director, while continuing his highly successful collaboration with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra as Principal Conductor, the Israel Chamber Orchestra as Principal Guest Conductor, and the Marvão International Music Festival as Artistic Director.

One of the rising young conductors in Hong Kong, Vivian Ip was appointed Associate Conductor of Hong Kong Sinfonietta from the 2023/2024 season, where she has presented a series of family concerts as well as worked closely with guest artists and musicians.

Praised by the winner of the "Best Conductor" Grammy Award John Nelson: "Conducting is like breathing for you. Bright talent you have!", Ip received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music (First Class Honours) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. With an Associate Instructorship and the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship for Overseas Studies, she received her Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting at the Indiana University Bloomington. She graduated in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, receiving the highest award of the year, under the supervision of Uroš Lajovic and Johannes Wildner.

Ip has guest conducted at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Musica Viva Hong Kong and Hong Kong Grand Opera, and was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2016-2018, where she assisted its Music Director Jaap van Zweden and Principal Guest Conductor Yu Long, as well as overseas conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit, Vassily Sinaisky and Lawrence Foster. In 2018, she led the Xing-er Symphony Orchestra in Guangzhou to the Gold Award at the 6th World Orchestra Festival in Vienna, where she also received the Talented Conductor Prize.

A recipient of the Hong Kong Outstanding Young Musician Award in 2024, Ip currently teaches Conducting, as well as Practical Studies in Musicianship and Choral Conducting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a part-time faculty member of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
 

Named after the Romer's Tree Frog endemic to Hong Kong, Romer String Quartet (RSQ) is one of the most active and versatile string quartets in town which has been recognised for its virtuosic performances and creative programming.

Born and raised in Hong Kong - a city known as a cultural melting pot, the four musicians particularly enjoy cross-disciplinary performances in collaboration with artists of diverse background, ranging from dancer, choreographer and multimedia artist, to animator, sand painter, storyteller and indie rock band. Aspiring to create extraordinary musical experiences while pushing the boundaries of a string quartet, RSQ collaborated with acclaimed artists to curate and perform in a variety of genre-defying projects, including award-winning visual and sound artist Samson Young's multimedia project "Muted Situations" for the Asia Triennial Manchester and Art Basel Hong Kong, and a series of online music-animation co-produced by Kamishibai Studio HK.

Striving to be at the forefront of championing new music, RSQ often works with both established and young composers, giving world premieres of over 50 pieces to date. It was featured in "Freespace Mixtape Vol. 3", an album of new compositions and arrangements produced by the West Kowloon Cultural District, as well as in the highly acclaimed CD "Eurydice", with an hour-long work composed by the sought-after interdisciplinary artist Austin Yip for the dance film project "Ballet de la Nuit".

Since its debut in 2013, the quartet gained wide acclaim for its international appearances at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in the US and Toppan Hall in Japan. It has also been invited to perform at renowned festivals, including the Hong Kong Arts Festival and Beare's Premiere Music Festival. RSQ regularly performs locally and abroad in projects presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Tokyo), Radio Television Hong Kong, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Art Museum, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hong Kong Harmonica Association and Hong Kong Composers' Guild, to name a few. RSQ has given over 20 educational and outreach performances as the quartet-in-residence with Premiere Performances Hong Kong, along with masterclasses and workshops at local and overseas institutes.
 

A string quartet in demand around Asia, Europe, and the United States, Cong Quartet is the top prize and Adolfo Betti Award winner of the Virtuoso & Belcanto's Chamber Music Competition in Italy in 2022. They were also the first prize and Grand Prize winner at the 2019 Salzburg Mozart International Chamber Competition in Tokyo, 2nd prize in the 2021 Kreutzer International Competition in Belgium, 3rd prize in the 2024 International Music Competition Triomphe de l'Art in Brussels and was a finalist of several international chamber music competitions. The quartet was priorly the Artist in Residence for the Master of Arts Programme and Ensemble-in-Residence of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) from 2019. The quartet is now a member of the Le Dimore del Quartetto in Italy and served the Musique à Flaine 's artistic residency in 2023.

Supported by the Emerging Artists Scheme of the Hong Kong Art Development Council (ADC) and the Stichting Utopia (The Utopia Foundation) in 2019, Cong Quartet has been a quartet at the Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie (NSKA), as well as being on the young artist roster of the Musethica in Europe and a musical partner of Domaine de La Garde in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. The quartet has participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar and the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute in New York, the European Chamber Music Academy(ECMA), the Ashkenasi/Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar at The Heifetz International Music Institute, the Intensive String Quartet seminar at Music Academy Hörpu in Iceland, the Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy in Japan, as well as Music in PyeongChang in South Korea and sponsored by the Artsylvia Foundation. They have also coached young & adult chamber music groups at CUHK, the Madeline Island Chamber Music, HIMA USA, the Indiana University Summer String Academy, the Accademia Internazionale di Musica di Cagliari and many more places.

Their important mentors include members of the Ysaye Quartet, Marc Danel at NSKA, Pacifica Quartet at Indiana University, Shmuel Ashkenasi & Nicholas Kitchen at the Heifetz Institute, Ivan Chan at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. They have also worked extensively with members of Borromeo, Brentano, Cavani, Danel, Dover, Ébène, Guarneri, Jerusalem, Juilliard, Shanghai & Tokyo Quartets. Cong Quartet have performed with world-renowned artists such as Yovan Markovitch, Enrico Pace, Yuri Bashmet, Joshua Bell and Rohan de Silva among many others. In these past years, they also focused on collaborations with prominent musicians of their generation such as violinist Angela Chan, Jinjoo Cho, Shannon Lee, Callum Smart, violist Adrien La Marca, cellist Brannon Cho & Sterling Elliott.

Cong Quartet believes that the humanistic experience of chamber music is a treasure to the community. They share the philosophy of promoting chamber repertoire from their generation and in Hong Kong, as well as integrating chamber music into the daily lives of audiences. The name of the quartet, "CONG" is a combination of the quartet founding members' last names that allude to Hong "Kong", where the members grew up and played together since their teenage years before the Quartet was officially formed at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in the US.

Their concerts last seasons have brought them to Australia, China, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States. They performed as guest artists in recitals at various universities across the United States and a residency at the Composers Forum of the University of North Texas. Cong Quartet have also served as judges and/or guest performers for many competitions, such as the Hong Kong Youth Music Interflows of Music Office, the New Generation call-for-score competition and the Emerging Composer Fellowship of Hong Kong Composers' Guild. The quartet has regular collaborations with local venues, museums, universities & organizations in Hong Kong such as Asia Society Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong Strings Orchestra, HKU MUSE, Jockey Club, Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Music Office, Musicus Society, Tai Kwun, Vantage Music, West Kowloon Cultural District, World Culture Festival and many others.