Between Worlds – Tradition and discovery in dialogue by Aristo Sham

Marking his return to Tai Kwun for the first time since winning the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Hong Kong-born Aristo Sham was given carte blanche to curate two ground-breaking concerts under the theme Between Worlds – Tradition and discovery in dialogue bringing together diverse musicians and musical cultures into a unique artistic vision, including newly commissioned works written especially for the occasion. Opening an entirely new chapter in the pianist's development, Aristo's collaborators include the French violinist Fanny Clamagirand, Shanghai-based erhu player Yiwen Lu (winner of the Erhu category at the 10th Golden Bell Awards in 2015) and Berlin-based Bar Zemach (Principal Horn of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra) doubling on French horn and shofar, an ancient horn principally used in Jewish rituals. In addition to standard Western chamber music by Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofiev, the programmes include transcriptions of Jewish and Chinese works for piano and shofar and erhu, respectively, as well as newly commissioned works for shofar trio (shofar, erhu and piano) from Hong Kong-based composer Elliot Leung and Israeli-American composer Ofer Ben-Amots, winner of the 1994 Vienna International Competition for Composers.