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French star violinist Alexandra Soumm debuts with Hong Kong Sinfonietta
in a programme of Bruch, Ravel & Berio conducted by Pascal Rophé

For immediate release
21 May 2025

One of the most iconic concertos for the violin, Bruch’s Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor incorporates dazzling virtuosity, exuberant energy and exquisite lyricism into one enthralling experience for the audience. This French May Arts Festival, Hong Kong Sinfonietta has invited French star violinist Alexandra Soumm to make her Hong Kong début playing this must-hear work, in a programme which also includes Ravel’s enchanting Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) and monumental Italian contemporary composer Berio’s Requies, all under the baton of distinguished French conductor Pascal Rophé, who is also appearing in Hong Kong for the first time. The concert, exclusively sponsored by CLP Holdings Limited, will take place on 31 May 2025 (Sat) at Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall at 8pm.

Acclaimed for her energetic and captivating artistry on stage, French violinist Alexandra Soumm has previously performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra etc, as well as the leading orchestras in Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Montpellier and most of the BBC ensembles, with whom she worked as a former BBC 3 New Generation Artist and London Music Masters awardee. In her Hong Kong début, Soumm will present Bruch’s Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor, an exhilarating and effervescent work described by its dedicatee – the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim – as “the richest, the most seductive” of all violin concertos from the time.

One of the greatest luminaries and icons of French music, Ravel’s masterful manipulation of harmonies and tonal colours, as well as his unparalleled genius in orchestration, are certainly worth celebrating especially in the 150^th anniversary of his birth. Under the direction of great French conductor Pascal Rophé, currently Music Director of the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and previously Music Director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Hong Kong Sinfonietta will present Ravel’s endearing, fairy tale-inspired and quintessentially French masterpiece Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose). Monumental 20^th-century Italian composer Berio’s contemplative Requies, written in memory of his first wife Cathy Berberian in 1984 for the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, will start the concert.

As the Exclusive Sponsor of the concert, CLP Holdings Limited has been supporting Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s concerts in the French May Arts Festival for more than 18 years. With the aim to make classical music more accessible, CLP has also sponsored the Student Ticket Scheme of Hong Kong Sinfonietta since 2013. In enabling more than 12,000 students to enjoy orchestral performances through half-priced student tickets, CLP’s initiatives contribute to the development and appreciation of the arts, improving quality of life and encouraging creative thinking.

French May Arts Festival

Great Violin Concertos:

Alexandra Soumm Plays Bruch

31 May 2025 (Saturday) | 8pm
Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall
$520, $380, $220

Conductor: Pascal Rophé
Violin: Alexandra Soumm

Programme
Berio – Requies (1983-1984) (Hong Kong première)
Bruch – Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op 26
Ravel – Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose)

Half-price tickets available for full-time students, senior citizens, people with disabilities and their minder, and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients
10% discount for group bookings of 4 or more standard tickets
Suitable for 6 years old or above
Tickets at URBTIX
Tickets online at POPTICKET (no handling fee)

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Pascal Rophé Conductor

An innovative and passionate musician, Pascal Rophé is one of France’s most sought-after conductors. He is currently Music Director of the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, having previously been Music Director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège.

Known as one of the leading interpreters of 20^th– and 21^st-century repertoire, Rophé conducts orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Ensemble intercontemporain, SWR Symphonieorchester, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, New Japan Philharmonic and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Highlights of the 2024/2025 season included re-invitations to conduct the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and BBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as the première of Voyage d’Automne, the latest opera by Bruno Mantovani, at the Opéra National du Capitole de Toulouse.

Rophé has received numerous awards and praise from the press for his extensive discography. His most recent recordings – Ravel: Cantates pour le Prix de Rome and Chants d’Auvergne with Carolyn Sampson and the Tapiola Sinfonietta – were respectively described as “fascinating and always seductive” (Gramophone), and “absolutely exemplary” (CRESCENDO Magazine). To celebrate the centenary of the birth of Dutilleux, a recording of works by the composer was released by BIS in 2018. In the same year, Rophé’s recording of works by Dusapin with the Arditti Quartet and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France won the Gramophone Award for Best Contemporary Recording.

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Alexandra Soumm Violin

French violinist Alexandra Soumm is a multi-faceted, versatile artist who is equally at home in concerto and chamber repertoire. She has appeared with the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, among many others. She has given recitals at the Louvre, Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts and London Wigmore Hall, and has also appeared at the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Deauville Easter and City of London festivals, as well as the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad.

Soumm’s strongest ties are to France and England where she has ongoing relationships with many leading orchestras in Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Montpellier and most of the BBC ensembles, with whom she worked as a former BBC 3 New Generation Artist and London Music Masters awardee.

Born in Moscow, Soumm started to learn the violin at the age of five and gave her first concert two years later. She later moved to Vienna to study with the renowned pedagogue Boris Kuschnir and won the Eurovision Young Musicians contest in 2004. In 2012, along with two friends, she founded the non-profit organisation Esperanz’Arts, whose goal is to make all art forms accessible to people in schools, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters. She was named Godmother of El Sistema France.

Passionate about teaching and communicating her artistry, Soumm has loved her work with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, Animato Foundation, Sphinx Foundation and Orchestre Français des Jeunes, and has been involved with the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland for over 10 years. She has given masterclasses in the USA, Venezuela, Brazil, the UK, Japan, Israel and Kenya. She joined the Artistic and Pedagogical Committee of the Mundi School based in Belgium in 2018, and began teaching at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien from 2021.

Soumm champions a wide range of repertoire, from Baroque to contemporary music, as well as the transversality between the arts, creating numerous projects around poetry, literature and philosophy. She works regularly with contemporary composers such as Christoph Ehrenfellner who composed a string quartet and his Second Violin Concerto for her, Kryštof Mařatka, Benoît Menut, Emile Daems, and Eric Tanguy who composed a piece for soprano and piano based on her poem “Cercle”.

Soumm plays on a Goffredo Cappa violin made around 1700.

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