IC president Deland Leong Wai Man
Despite its theme “Song of Tomorrow,” this year’s Macao International Music Festival (FIMM) in fact celebrates joy, love and hope, Deland Leong Wai Man, president of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), said yesterday.
Yesterday, the bureau held a press conference to reveal the line-up of this year’s event. On the sidelines of the press conference, after announcing a program mostly concentrating on classical music, poems and hymns, the IC president was questioned by the Times as to where the elements of “tomorrow” lie in the program itself.
Recapping her speech at the ceremony, she defended the theme, stating that the festival this year is aimed at “gathering melodies of joy, love and hope to create a kaleidoscopic spiritual world for everyone” amid the “once-in-a-century pandemic.”
She reiterated that there would be shows that reformulate classical works and present them from a new perspective. In addition, many of the performers would be from younger generations, she said.
“We hope to present a multifaceted festival with classics,” she concluded.
The program of this year’s festival features a collection of orchestral classics, jazz and 16th century Christian hymns.
In previous years, the IC invited pop singers from Hong Kong to perform several concerts at the music festival to cater to fans of pop music, while expanding the scope of the musical offerings. For example, Hong Kong Cantopop star William So performed a single concert during the 31st FIMM.
When questioned about the absence of Canto pop and local pop musicians, she dismissed the suggestion that there was a lack of a local talent lineup in the program. She pointed out that the Macao Orchestra and the Macao Chinese Orchestra are also taking part.
The two orchestras, although recently semi-privatized and set to operate commercially, are managed by a company fully owned by the government. The IC president is the chairperson of the company board.
A local violinist and a theatrical actor will also take part in two of the 10 shows in the program, she added, while promising that local pop musicians will be featured in other IC events and shows.
“The International Music Festival will focus on classical works,” she said, without saying whether the festival had shifted focus.
She hinted that under the current Covid-19 control measures and restrictions on immigration, inviting foreign performers to the music festival was difficult. “We need to choose performers with a greater likelihood of being able to enter Macau during the festival,” she said.
The IC has budgeted MOP13 million for this year’s music festival.
When asked to comment on the Public Works Bureau’s report on the collapse of the four-century-old city wall on Guia Hill, Leong pledged that the IC would learn from the incident and improve its work on preserving historical sites.
She did not give a direct answer as to whether IC had access to the full report. For the time being, only an abstract of the report is available to the public.
