Historic Macau is Music to the Ears

Four of Macau's 25 much treasured UNESCO World Heritage sites are to play key roles at this year's 27th Macau International Music Festival.

The 15th Century-founded St Dominic's Church, the 1860-built Dom Pedro V Theatre, Mandarin's House, the 19th Century home of Chinese philosopher Zheng Guanying, and the dominant 17th Century Mount Fortress will be among the six venues to host performances by artists from around the world.

The prominent Macau Tower and the Macau Cultural Centre will also host shows for the month-long festival from October 2 to November 3.

Among this year's guest performers from as far afield as Europe, Asia and North America the USA will be the famous Vienna Boys Choir from Austria, the Dresden Philharmonic from Germany, the Terem Quartet from Russia, the Latvian National Opera and the Iberian Jazz All Stars from Portugal and Spain.

Performing Miss Saigon - The Musical will be the USA's McCoy Rigby Entertainment while mainland China will be represented by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra as well as the Dragon Quartet.

The local Macau Chinese Orchestra will perform "Chinese music for television and film" in the Macau Cultural Centre. The Macau International Music Festival will be one of three major events to fill a busy calendar in Macau between September and mid-November.

From September 14 over four weekends until October 1 will be the 25th Macau International Display Contest which will light up the evening sky over the Macau Tower and the harbour with a rainbow of colours.

This year's challenge will be fought out by representatives from Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Korea, Portugal, Italy, Canada, France, China and Australia.

Based on the previous year's result of 2nd, the Australian team, from Brisbane's Infinity Pyrotechnic, is expected to be among the favourites this year and will show off its spectacular works on September 21, on the same night as the Portugal team's showing.

November 9 will mark the start of a two-weekend celebration of motor racing - the 60th Macau Grand Prix Diamond Jubilee Festival.

Some of the big names of world motor racing have competed on the famous road circuit, among them ultimate F1 champions Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, along with Australians David Brabham, Kevin Bartlett and Vern Schuppan.

A tasty food festival and further fireworks will accompany the festival on the November 9-10 and November 14-17 weekends.

Macau Government TouristOffice (Australia and NZ), phone (02) 9264 1488 or check out www.macautourism.gov.mo