Three Form 4 students named the Music Office's most outstanding trainees for

THE three students have much in common. They are 15 years old, study in Form 4, wear glasses, and love music. And they are musicians of calibre. All three - Christopher Cheng Wai-ho, Ryan Poon Yeuk-kei and Cheng Ka-ming - were named the Music Office's mostoutstanding trainees in 1991-2.

Each year the Music Office singles out exceptionally promising young people from the three sections of its Instrumental Music Training Scheme: Chinese orchestra, woodwind and brass, as well as strings.

Playing the rather rare digehu (the Chinese equivalent of the double bass) is Cheng Wai-ho of St Francis of Assisi's College.

''My initial interest was in the piano and cello,'' Wai-ho said. ''In fact, before I took up the digehu four years ago, I found traditional Chinese music almost unbearable, it sounded so noisy!'' But by a twist of fate, he started to learn this strange-looking and heavy instrument (it is twice the weight of the double bass) for the sake of novelty. Since then, his appreciation of Chinese music has been greatly enhanced.

Describing himself as a ''music fanatic'', Wai-ho says he now even seeks out Western melodies, including pop music, to give them the Chinese treatment on his digehu.

Interestingly, La Salle College's Cheng Ka-ming, who plays the violin, also found his instrument ''a nuisance'' when his mother made him learn it as a Primary 1 student.

''I would cry whenever she asked me to practise,'' Ka-ming recalled. ''But mother would then say: If you don't practise the violin, then you must study.'' So, ''having no choice'', Ka-ming learnt the instrument for six years before he joined the Music Office scheme in Form 1.