Photos by Peter Rigaud, Keith Hiro

On Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) is regarded as one of the leading orchestras in Asia. Presenting more than 150 concerts over a 44-week season, the HK Phil attracts more than 200,000 music lovers annually. The HK Phil won the prestigious UK classical music magazine Gramophone’s 2019 Orchestra of the Year Award – the first orchestra in Asia to receive this accolade.

​​Tarmo Peltokoski is the HK Phil’s Music Director Designate in 2025/26 and will become Music Director in the 2026/27 season. ​Currently, Long Yu serves as Principal Guest Conductor and Lio Kuokman is Resident Conductor.​ Esa-Pekka Salonen is Composer-in-Residence.​

The HK Phil has flourished in the last two decades under Jaap van Zweden (Music Director, 2012–2024) and Edo de Waart (Artistic Director and Chief Conductor, 2004–2012). The orchestra successfully completed a four-year journey through Wagner’s Ring Cycle, performing and recording one opera from the cycle annually from 2015 to 2018. The concert performances were well received, and the live Naxos recordings were praised by critics, and garnered the Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award 2019. Other recent recording projects include Mahler’s Symphony no. 10, Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 10, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 6 and Piano Concerto no. 1.​ The HK Phil collaborates with Deutsche Grammophon and is set to release Wagner’s The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure arranged by Henk de V​​lieger​​ and​​ conducted by Tarmo Peltokoski. ​

The HK Phil has toured extensively across Mainland China. The orchestra undertook a major tour in 2017 to Seoul, Osaka, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney in celebration of the 20^th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The HK Phil ​toured Europe, Asia, and Mainland China, performing in 22 cities across ten countries in​ its 50^th anniversary.​ In the 2025/26 season, the orchestra will perform in Europe, Japan, Korea and Mainland China again.​

Conductors and soloists who have recently performed with the orchestra include Anja Bihlmaier, Stéphane Denève, Christoph Eschenbach, ​Daniel Gatti, Daniel Harding, Pietari Inkinen, ​Paavo Järvi, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Vasily Petrenko, Joshua Bell, Ning Feng, ​Stephen Hough, ​​Jonas Kaufmann, ​Lang Lang, Leonidas Kavakos, Olivier Latry, Yo-Yo Ma and Akiko Suwanai. The HK Phil promotes the work of Hong Kong and Chinese composers through an active commissioning programme, and it has released recordings on the Naxos label featuring Tan Dun and Bright Sheng, each conducting their own compositions.

The HK Phil runs diverse education and community programmes in schools and outdoor spaces, bringing music into the hearts of tens of thousands of children and families every year.

The Swire Group has been the Principal Patron of the HK Phil since 2006. Through this current sponsorship donation, the largest in the orchestra’s history, Swire endeavours to foster access to classical music and stimulate cultural participation in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. A critical aspect of this is engaging with the community, especially young people. The sponsorship will also help promote local artistic excellence and enhance Hong Kong’s reputation as one of the great cities in the world.

Thanks to a significant subsidy from the Government of the HKSAR and long-term funding from Principal Patron Swire, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and other supporters, the HK Phil now boasts a full-time annual schedule of core classical repertoire and innovative popular programming, extensive education and community programmes, and collaborations with, amongst others, Hong Kong Ballet, Opera Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

The history of the HK Phil dates back to the establishment of the Sino-British Orchestra in 1947. In 1957, the orchestra was officially registered as the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and became fully professional in 1974. The HK Phil is a registered charitable organisation.

On Tarmo Peltokoski

Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski will become the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s Music Director beginning in the 2026/27 season, after serving as Music Director Designate in 2025/26. He was awarded the title “Principal Guest Conductor” of The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in January 2022, the first conductor to hold this position in the orchestra’s 42-year history. In May 2022, Peltokoski was named Music and Artistic Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. He started his term in the 22/23 season. He was subsequently named Principal Guest Conductor of the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest. In August 2022 at the age of 22, he completed his first Wagner Ring cycle at the Eurajoki Bel Canto Festival. In December 2022, Peltokoski was announced as Music Director of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

In recent seasons he made debuts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Göteborgs Symfoniker as well as SWR Symphonieorchester at Pfingstfestspiele Baden-Baden and with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

Summer festival debuts include Rheingau Musik Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, the Verbier Festival, Musikfest Bremen and Festival de Música y Danza Granada.

Tarmo Peltokoski returned to Eurajoki Bel Canto Festival to conduct Tristan und Isolde in April 2023.

In summer 2023 he conducted Siegfried with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and Don Giovanni at the Finnish National Opera in October 2023.

This August Peltokoski will conduct Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in Riga. In September he will make his

BBC Proms debut at Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony and later in the fall conduct Filarmonica della Scala and Philharmonia Zürich as well as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the spring of 2025 he will tour Germany with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, make his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Bayerisches Staatsorchester, conduct Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer in Luxembourg and Brussels and will make his Japan debut conducting the NHK Symphony. In the summer of 2025 he will be conducting Parsifal with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.

He has worked with soloists including Yuja Wang, Asmik Grigorian, Matthias Goerne, Julia Fischer, Golda Schultz, Martin Fröst, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Janine Jansen, Martin Helmchen, Leonidas Kavakos, Camilla Nylund and Sol Gabetta.

Tarmo Peltokoski began his studies with professor emeritus Jorma Panula at the age of 14 and studied with Sakari Oramo at the Sibelius Academy. He has also been taught by Hannu Lintu, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Also an acclaimed pianist, he studied piano at the Sibelius Academy with Antti Hotti. His piano playing has been awarded at many competitions and he has appeared as a soloist with all major Finnish orchestras.

In October 2023 Tarmo Peltokoski signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His debut album was released in May 2024.

In 2022 he received the Lotto Prize at Rheingau Musik Festival and in 2023 he received the OPUS Klassik for his recording with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

In addition Tarmo Peltokoski has also studied composing and arranging, and especially enjoys music comedy and improvisation.

On Martin Helmchen

German pianist Martin Helmchen has been performing on the world’s most prestigious stages for two decades and is one of the most sought-after pianists of today. His originality and intensity of interpretation, which he presents with impressive tonal sensitivity and technical finesse, sets him apart as a musician. In 2020 he was honored with the prestigious Gramophone Classical Music Award.

In the 2024/25 season, Martin Helmchen will be Artist in Residence with the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra. Additionally, he will perform with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. His solo recitals will take him to venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Beethovenfest Bonn, and the SWR Piano Series in Mainz.

Martin Helmchen has performed with numerous renowned international orchestras, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouworkest, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Vienna Symphony, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and The Cleveland Orchestra. He regularly collaborates with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Haitink (†), Manfred Honeck, Jakub Hrůša, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Fabio Luisi, Andrew Manze, Klaus Mäkelä, Andris Nelsons, Sakari Oramo, Tarmo Peltokoski, and Kazuki Yamada.

Chamber music holds a special place for him – a passion for which Boris Pergamenschikow provided significant inspiration. His close chamber music partners include Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Julian Prégardien, Augustin Hadelich, and Antje Weithaas.

He is a guest at renowned festivals such as the BBC Proms, Tanglewood, Schubertiade, Lockenhaus and Lucerne Festival, as well as the Marlboro and Aspen Music Festivals. He is additionally the co-founder and co-artistic director of the Fliessen International Chambermusic Festival alongside Marie-Elisabeth Hecker.

Martin Helmchen records for the label Alpha Classics. His most recent release, in May 2024, was a recording of the Six Partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach, for which he received a Critic’s Choice from Gramophone Magazine. In March 2022, his highly praised album “Novelletten and Gesänge der Frühe” featuring piano works by Robert Schumann was released. His previous recordings include, among others, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, Messiaen’s “Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus,” and albums with Marie-Elisabeth Hecker featuring works by Schubert and Brahms.

Born in Berlin in 1982, he initially studied with Galina Iwanzowa at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin before moving to study with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik Hannover. Other mentors include William Grant Naboré and Alfred Brendel. His career was significantly shaped by winning the “Concours Clara Haskil” in 2001 and the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2006. Since 2010, Martin Helmchen has been an Associate Professor of Chamber Music at the Kronberg Academy. He lives in Germany with his wife, cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and their four daughters.