Join this party wave
The Australian Chamber Orchestra is bringing its surf, turf and music jamboree to Hong Kong. Sue Green jumps in
When Julian Thompson was a Canberra schoolboy, a camp at the coast two hours' drive from Australia's landlocked capital sparked the beginning of a lifelong passion for riding the surf.
"They gave us boards and wetsuits and we flailed around in the water, and I guess that started me off," recalls Thompson, who now lives in a Sydney beachside suburb and hits the surf whenever he gets the chance.
Now a new performance piece by the Australian Chamber Orchestra means the cellist and his boss, artistic director Richard Tognetti, can combine their public passion for making music with their not-so-private passion for surfing.
As the full ensemble plays an eclectic selection of music ranging from Bach and Shostakovich to grunge rockers Alice in Chains' Them Bones and US protest singer Pete Seeger's Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, a film plays on a large screen behind it.
Largely created during a residency on the far northwest coast, 800km north of Perth, The Reef, says Thompson, "is not a movie that has just got a whole lot of waves in it" and Hong Kong audiences "should not think of it as a surf movie".
Hongkongers can decide for themselves when The Reef is performed on Saturday as part of the 41st Hong Kong Arts Festival.