China Orphan Outreach Concert MedArt Orchestra Cultural Centre Concert Hall Sunday A charity concert with a good cause is always a winner. And with top musicians on stage, this was also a memorable musical occasion. MedArt Orchestra, a 90-member ensemble comprising mostly medical and musical professionals, performed its biannual fundraising concert on Sunday to raise money for medical treatment for young orphans on the mainland. The cause prompted among the players a gravity that produced an earnest music-making effort rarely felt in a paid concert. Instead of the usual speeches, the concert began with a silent slideshow on the work of MedArt in China. It was inspiring to view those pictures as a way to pay tribute to the volunteers offering their time and expertise for the otherwise forgotten. Not Forgotten 2 , a sequel to the first book of photographs documenting the doctors at work and the difference they brought to young lives in China, was launched at the concert. From the first note of Anton Dvorak's cello concerto, MedArt Orchestra sounded anything but a pickup ensemble. The effective leadership of Beijing maestro Li Xincao aside, the strings displayed great discipline under guest concertmaster David Nolan, a veteran from the London Philharmonic. The great bravura with which solo cellist Qin Liwei entered offered a very high note and it was by no means a passing flash of brilliance. The Singapore-based cellist remained emotionally charged and sang beautifully in the quiet passages along with the woodwinds. There was a natural rhythmic flow throughout, and the work ended on an impressive crescendo, thanks to the fine baton yielded by one of the best mainland conductors. A round of rapturous applause was rewarded with an encore of a short duet by Rossini performed by the cellist along with Jonathan Van Dyke, the guest principal bass from the Hong Kong Philharmonic. But it was the Rachmaninov Second Symphony in the second half that truly showed the unifying power of music for a great cause. It was a rare scene to see principal players of the city's music groups performing together to great effect. The cello section, for example, was led by Richard Bamping and Chang Pei-chieh, principals of the Hong Kong Phil and Hong Kong Sinfonietta. They tackled the long work with focus and depth, overcoming technical challenges through a conviction that they were helping society's forgotten. Li took the audience on a musical roller coaster and concluded the concert with Nimrod from Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations , a heart-warming piece to urge people to remember the forgotten.
