Club Amphitheatre provides canopied, multi-purpose performance venue

28/09/2010

In 1984, to celebrate its centenary, The Hong Kong Jockey Club provided funding of HK$300 million to build The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA).  A quarter of a century later, the Club has donated HK$56 million through its Charities Trust to construct an enclosure for HKAPA’s outdoor performance area and turn it into The Hong Kong Jockey Club Amphitheatre.

Today (28 September), the Club's Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges and Executive Director, Charities Douglas So joined HKAPA Council Chairman William Leung and Academy Director Professor Kevin Thompson as officiating guests at the grand opening of the Amphitheatre, which will provide an all-weather training and performance venue for HKAPA students, as well as alleviate a shortage of such facilities for public performances in Hong Kong. 

Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said the Club had played a significant role in promoting and developing arts and culture throughout Hong Kong over the years, as it believed that "a city without art is a city without life".  In the past ten years alone, he noted, the Club's donations to arts and culture had totalled some HK$1.3 billion.

"We at the Club feel a very special bond with the HKAPA, because we’ve been involved with the Academy’s development not just since its birth, but since its very conception," he commented, adding that over the subsequent years the Club has made a number of further contributions to the Academy, either in hardware or software. 

Located at the west side of the campus, the 600-seat Hong Kong Jockey Club Amphitheatre was originally an outdoor facility, susceptible to traffic noise and inclement weather.  To widen its usability, an enclosure has been constructed for the theatre, with a glass canopy letting in eco-friendly daylight, and motorised roller blinds allowing the glass to be blacked out for projection and theatre lighting if required during the daytime.  The Amphitheatre is also equipped with adjustable acoustics, sophisticated lighting and sound systems, and a retractable video projection screen suitable for different types of events and performances, including dance, drama and xiqu.  Besides serving as a training venue for HKAPA students, it will be available for public hire. 

As a long-term strategic partner of HKAPA, the Club has not only funded the construction of the Academy’s campus and the enclosure of its amphitheatre, but also the establishment of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Millennium Studios for the Chinese traditional theatre programme and the acquisition of a collection of eight antique stringed instruments, which have been loaned to HKAPA for student training and performances.

The Club has also supports a performing arts outreach programme called "Behind the Scenes", under which HKAPA students conduct free interactive arts workshops for primary and secondary students with mutual benefits.  Moreover, 29 HKAPA students have been recipients of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarships over the past decade, including 5th runner-up in the 15th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition, Colleen Lee, and Hong Kong Drama Award Best Actor Joey Leung. 

The Hong Kong Jockey Club 

Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club has become one of Hong Kong’s best known and respected organisations, providing the public with world-class sporting entertainment as well as being the city’s major non-Government community benefactor, now donating more than HK$1 billion a year to charitable and community projects.  It has been a part of Hong Kong through good times and bad, sharing the city’s growth and development with its people, and is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for future generations.