An Australian youth orchestra musician found dead in a Hong Kong hotel room died after taking a deadly cocktail of drugs, a news report said Sunday.Daniel Hall, 21, an oboe player with the Perth-based Western Australian Youth Orchestra, took a mixture of cocaine, ketamine and opiates, probably heroin, the South China Morning Post reported.
Hall reportedly bought the drugs with orchestra colleague Evan Williams, also 21, from a doorman at a night-club close to their hotel after an evening out with fellow musicians on December 18, the newspaper said.
Hours later, Hall was found dead in his room while trombonist Williams was found face down in the bathroom. Williams was critically ill but recovered and was flown back to Australia on December 24.
The pair were in Hong Kong for two concerts as part of an Asian tour by the 75-strong orchestra which was cancelled after Hall's death. They played earlier in Singapore.
Orchestra head Ben Burgess told the newspaper the two musicians thought they were buying cocaine from the nightclub doorman. "(They) bought some white powder which they snorted in the room," he said.
The drugs were "a bad batch" he said, containing a mixture of cocaine, ketamine and heroin or morphine. The pair were found collapsed in their room by a fellow orchestra member.
Hall and Williams are believed to have bought the drugs from a doorman in a nightclub in Prat Avenue close to their hotel in the city's Tsim Sha Tsui tourist district, the newspaper said.