Macao Orchestra presents the concerts “Unforgettable Melodies at the Ruins of St. Paul’s” in cooperation with local choirs on Christmas day to celebrate the festivity with music aficionados

MACAU, December 18 - The Macao Orchestra presents the concerts “Unforgettable Melodies at the Ruins of St. Paul’s” on 25 December, at the Ruins of St. Paul’s, at 6pm and 7pm, organised by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym) and co-ordinated by the Macao Orchestra Company, Limited. The Macao Orchestra (OM) will join hands with several local choirs to present cheerful and melodious Christmas songs, celebrating this festivity with residents and tourists. New members for the participating choirs will also be recruited.

In the concerts, the Orchestra, under the baton of its Assistant Conductor, Tony Cheng-Te Yeh, will present Tchaikovsky’s Polonaise, from Eugene Onegin and “The Nutcracker” Suite, and will collaborate with the choirs of the Sacred Heart Canossian College, the Sacred Heart Canossian College (English Section), Macau Baptist School and Macau University of Science and Technology to present excerpts of Handel’s Messiah and Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival, sharing the warmth and joy of Christmas with the public. For the concerts, an open recruitment of members of the public for the choirs will be also held. Participants are required to attend the rehearsal of the performance to be held at the Ruins of St. Paul’s from 4pm to 5pm on the same day. Interested parties can register on the Macao Orchestra website (www.om-macau.org/choir2024) before 22 December. Distribution is on a first-come, first-served basis, and subject to availability. The successful applicants will be notified via SMS on or before 23 December. Residents and tourists are welcome to participate in the chorus, jointly presenting the festive song A Christmas Festival celebrating Christmas together.

In order to ensure the public safety, crowd control measures will be implemented in designated areas on the day of the performance. Audience members must follow on-site instructions and arrangements. When the number of people reaches the maximum capacity of the venue, the public will not be then allowed to enter the designated areas. The performance will be cancelled in case of rain or thunderstorms, and the public is advised to pay attention to on-site arrangements. In addition to the on-site performance, the event will also be broadcast live on a number of platforms, namely the “IC_Art” page on Facebook, the official WeChat accounts “ICmacao” and “IC_Art_Macao”, the “Macao Orchestra” page on Facebook and the official WeChat account “Macao Orchestra”.

For the latest information about the event, please visit the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s website at www.icm.gov.mo and the relevant platforms.