Hong Kong percussionist Sabrina Ma trades the orchestra for a musical ‘triathlon’
Berlin-based Sabrina Ma discusses her move from orchestra percussionist to solo performances, where she becomes ‘kind of dead at the end’
Sabrina Ma Suk-wai was something of a child prodigy. She started playing the piano, violin and drums when she was six, and became the SCMP Student Musician of the Year in 2001 when she was 16.
But when she turned 30, something began to shift in her.
Ahead of “Power, Sweat & Smiles”, a solo recital in her hometown of Hong Kong on February 8, the now 40-year-old tells the SCMP of her artistic transition over the past decade.
After years of following the same career trajectory as most classically trained musicians, the multi-instrumentalist – who plays everything from pitched, melodic instruments such as the marimba to non-pitched ones like drums and cymbals – felt she had exhausted the repertoire for an orchestra percussionist.
“Living in Europe and being exposed to certain types of arts, films and books has made me less interested in being part of a big mass on stage,” she says. She felt she had “reached a kind of plateau” and was increasingly frustrated by the lack of direct contact with the audience as an orchestra member, following a conductor’s directions.