Chinese musical instrument players on three concert programmes they put together for Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra
- A fusion of lute and horn inspired by Hong Kong’s neon lights, jazz tunes on the huqin, and a string ensemble – Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra pushes boundaries
- Three young players of Chinese musical instruments drawn from its ranks talk us through the concert programmes for this season they were invited to devise
Young musicians plucked from the ranks of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (HKCO) have created three adventurous concert programmes for the troupe’s abbreviated new season that starts in October.
Pipa virtuoso Belle Shiu Pui-yee from Hong Kong, Shanghai-born huqin player Li Xiaoding, and daruan principal Lau Yuek-lam from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, hope their programme choices will strengthen the contemporary voice of the 91-strong orchestra of Chinese traditional instrument players.
Shiu, for instance, has included in her concert a new work by Chow Jun-yi that features a rare fusion of the sounds of the pipa, or Chinese lute, and the suona, a double-reeded horn that produces a loud, high-pitched sound.
“You will see very little of the pipa and suona played together. The timbres and volumes of each instrument are different. The suona has a robust blare while the pipa comes off as more delicate and elegant,” explains Shiu, who will be performing Chow’s The Neon City with suona player Wu Chun-hei.
To weave the two sounds together, they drew inspiration from the novel Intersection by Lau Yee-cheung and from the city’s neon signage.