Issue #16

Date: 2010-09-01

Gig returns from its summer break with a look at how the Hong Kong government has thrown its weight behind the cultural and creative industries in the past two years, with major changes in infrastructure and arts education just the tip of the iceberg. We feature the three competing architectural plans for the West Kowloon Cultural District, a huge €2.2bn development that could take 20 years to come to fruition. There’s also a look at how the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra has been crucial to the growing of the territory’s unique East-meets-West cultural identity, particularly in the 13 years since the handover.

It’s a bumper edition for People news, with several high-profile movers and shakers including key appointments at the BBC Concert Orchestra, Bolshoi theatre and International artist Managers’ Association; we also have the full rundown of new faces at Intermusica, and violinist Viktoria Mullova talks to us about her latest project combining the gypsy-themed music of Liszt and Bartók with US jazz rhythms.

Elsewhere, there’s news of Korea’s first ever state-run modern dance company, financial misdoings at one of Ireland’s top opera houses, drastic proposals to finance Edinburgh’s festivals and . We also look back at the career of radical German director Christoph Schlingensief, who died in August at the age of 49.