The Learners Chorus

The Learners Chorus was founded by former members of the Hong Kong University Students’ Union Choir in 1979.  Its repertoire includes a wide spectrum of choral works with tasteful balance of various styles, ranging from solemn religious chorales to popular Christmas carols, secular madrigals to succinct folk songs, magnificent operas to Broadway musicals, and classical pieces to the contemporaries. In support of the local musical scene, commissioned choral works by distinguished Hong Kong composers are also frequent components of its performances.

Besides its own productions, The Learners Chorus has also actively participated in other local and overseas musical celebrations.  These include the 12th Festival International De Cant Coral in Spain in 1991, The Learners Chorus Concert at Academia de Musica S Pio X in Macau in 1994, RTHK Radio 4’s ‘Messiah in the Park’ in 2005 and ‘Seasons Greetings in the Park’ in 2006, and Haydn’s Creation presented by the Hong Kong Oratorio Society in April 2008.  To commemorate the 250th birthday of W.A. Mozart, the Chorus presented ‘A Tribute to Mozart – Requiem and Other Works’ in association with The Hong Kong Medical Association Orchestra in 2006. In 2007, the Chorus performed Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky together with the Friends of Learners Orchestra and more than 70 secondary school students.

In recent years, the Chorus has been active in charitable and community service.  Outreach mini-concerts are presented from time to time at community organizations, sanatoriums and elderly homes.  Starting from 2003, it has been donating proceeds from its concerts to education and medical services in China via the Hong Kong Christian Council.  As part of the Rebuilding Collapsing Schools Project, four primary schools were rebuilt on mountainous areas.  Last September, the ‘Magnificat through the Ages’ concert helped install 90 water cellars in Gansu in cooperation with Lotus Light Charity Society (Hong Kong) Limited. In addition to helping people in China, Learners is also committed to the promotion of music among students in Hong Kong, by offering them free tickets to our concerts under the sponsorship of benevolent friends of Learners.  By enhancing the learning of the young, the Chorus is living up to the name of Learners in a fuller sense.