‘Bay area billionaires want tickets’: interest in Yo-Yo Ma concert in Hong Kong pushes resale prices to HK$17,000
- Cellist is playing with Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra next month and tickets to sold-out show are being offered on secondary market – if you can afford them
- ‘If a fan pays HK$17,000 for a concert ticket, he or she may be better off by buying an air ticket to fly to the US, book a nice hotel and join his concert,’ observer says
Demand for tickets to a performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Hong Kong next month has become so intense they are selling for HK$17,000 (US$2,170) each on the secondary market, the Post has learned.
But less well-off fans still have a chance to hear the virtuoso play at another concert when tickets go on sale later this week.
Ma, who last performed publicly in the city in 2016, is set to play with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on November 8 at the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, with Jaap van Zweden conducting. The programme consists of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No 3 and Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio italien.
Tickets for the event, which is being held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Chinese University, were priced between HK$480 and HK$1,980.
After the concert sold out in August, ticket prices on the secondary market have jumped as high as HK$17,000, according to a source within local music circles, adding the ultra-wealthy in the Greater Bay Area were intent on hearing the virtuoso live.
“Bay area billionaires want tickets,” the source said, referring to an initiative by Beijing to combine Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong into an economic powerhouse.
Ma is closely linked with the university. His late uncle, Li Choh-ming, was its founding vice-chancellor, and the cellist was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature by the university.
