Advertisement
Advertisement

Musicians see off 100 competitors to play for YouTube orchestra

Two local musicians have beaten 100 international competitors to become the first violinists from Hong Kong and Macau to be selected for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

John Ma Pou-meng and Mark Hui Wing-chun outplayed violinists from around the globe to score spots in the orchestra's concert to be held in March in Sydney.

Ma, a graduate from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and Hui, a current student, will perform at the Sydney Opera House with musicians from all over the world on March 20. The performance will be broadcast live on the YouTube Symphony channel.

It is the second time the popular video site has assembled an orchestra, with the previous occasion being held in Carnegie Hall, New York, under the direction of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas in 2009.

In order to win a place in the orchestra, participants uploaded their audition pieces onto YouTube and those with the most votes from the online audience made the grade.

Born in Macau and currently the conductor of the Macau University Strings Orchestra and strings teacher with the Macau Youth Symphony Orchestra Association, Ma said his audition pieces including Beethoven's Symphony No 9, Mozart's Violin Concerto No 5 and Bach's Gigue generated more than 30,000 hits.

'I am thrilled by the chance I will have to meet musicians from around the world, including Poland and Venezuela,' he said.

The 27-year-old graduated from the academy in 2007 and obtained a master's degree in music from the University of Cincinnati in the US in 2008. He was inspired by his father, a violin enthusiast, to take up the instrument at the age of nine.

'I have listened to violin CDs of all kinds since childhood,' Ma said.

His talent was spotted by the academy's head of strings, Professor Michael Ma, when he played in a concert in Macau in 2000.

For the YouTube audition, he videotaped and edited all the pieces himself. 'I set up the tripod and aimed the camera at the score stand,' he said. 'The most challenging part was to pick the best renditions from scores of recordings.'

Hui, 19, is a year two student at the academy majoring in strings with minor studies in piano. Having played violin since he was six and the piano since he was three, he said he loved the experience of playing in a live orchestra.

'I joined the Asian Youth Orchestra last summer,' Hui said.

'I videotaped my audition piece in the concert hall in the academy with the help of a friend. The rendition was sweet as the sounds reverberated around the hall.'

Sharon Ng, head of marketing with Google Hong Kong, said the company was excited that two talented local musicians were in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011.

'They will have a unique opportunity to meet and interact with world-renowned musicians from different countries,' she said.

Post