To celebrate the 59th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China, Sun Wah Group sponsored "Trey Lee + HKPO -- A China National Day Celebration" at the Cultural Centre on 3rd Oct 2008.
Dr. Jonathan Choi, Chairman of Sun Wah Group expressed his appreciation to 150 VIP guests from various sectors that attended the National Day Concert. The three Guests of Honour of the celebration were: Mr. Peng Qing Hua, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in HKSAR; Professor K C Chan, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, HKSAR and Madam Sun Hong Xia, General Director of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC in HKSAR. Consul Generals and Consuls from 34 countries also came to the celebration including the Consul Generals of the United States and United Kingdom in Hong Kong. Other well-known guests included Nobel laureate, Professor Yang Chen Ning (楊振寧); Mr. Leung Chun Ying (梁振英) and Dr. Robin Y H Chan (陳有慶).
Speaking at the reception before the concert, Dr. Jonathan Choi said, "This year, China has impressed the world by organizing the very successful Beijing Olympics and completing the mission of the Shenzhou-7 Spacecraft. China also has to deal with unprecedented natural disasters like the extensive snowstorm and the Sichuan earthquake. With the financial crisis led by the collapse of subprime market, I think the world we all share needs more cooperation and understanding as well as cross-national development. Indeed, "one world, one dream", I strongly believe that if we can all work together as one world, we can overcome any difficulties and the future will be even better for all. Dr. Choi proposed a toast to the prosperity of the People's Republic of China and to peace and harmony of the world.
Dr. Choi also said that as an international conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong, Sun Wah is committed to contributing to the development of cultural events and activities of Hong Kong. The Group also pledged its support to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. "We are happy to see the Orchestra's continued growth and its increasing efforts to train young musicians from Hong Kong and Mainland China and work with the new generation of outstanding Chinese musicians," he added.
The Orchestra, under the baton of renowned conductor Paul Daniel, performed with renowned cellist, Hong Kong-born Trey Lee. Trey enjoyed international success at a young age and always kept his links with Hong Kong. Last year, Trey was invited by the Hong Kong SAR Government to perform at a concert celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Handover.
At the concert, Trey played Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme. His brilliant performance was greatly appreciated by the audience and he went on to play an encore piece --"Spring Breeze" (望春風), folk music from Fujian.
