The Paraorchestra’s Hong Kong concert lets audience walk around, see musicians up close
Neither audience members nor performers will be confined to their seats at the concert from the inclusive music ensemble Paraorchestra
Although widely recognised as the world’s first professional inclusive music ensemble, there is so much more to the Paraorchestra than its full integration of disabled and non-disabled musicians.
Indeed, the group has been celebrated around the world for its signature performance style that breaks the fourth wall of traditional classical music and invites the audience to immerse themselves in the show, sometimes even adding dance and theatre.
This rejection of rigid orchestral norms is exactly what Charles Hazlewood, an award-winning conductor, had in mind when he founded the inclusive group in Bristol in 2011 and led its major debut at the 2012 London Paralympics closing ceremony.
Almost 15 years on, Hazlewood, who is now the orchestra’s artistic director, is bringing The Nature of Why to Hong Kong as the opening programme of the 2026 No Limits festival, an annual inclusive arts initiative co-presented by the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.
Inspired by the inquisitive spirit of the Nobel-prize-winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman and his search for meaning in the world, The Nature of Why is an immersive music, theatre and dance experience in which the audience is invited to do more than just sit and listen.