Young Hong Kong musicians from ‘city of sadness’ spread Christmas joy

Youngsters from the “city of sadness” lifted their heads high as they shared the stage with a famed Cambridge University chorus and Singaporean musicians at St John’s Cathedral in Central.

Monday’s show marked the start of a busy Christmas schedule ahead of overseas tours to make the 20th anniversary of the handover next year.

Sixty teenagers from the Music for Our Young Foundation (MOY), a charitable group based in Tin Shui Wai, will perform a series of concerts after appearing with the celebrated Choir of Corpus Christi College.

Tin Shui Wai, an isolated new town in the northern New Territories, was dubbed “city of sadness” after a series of domestic tragedies linked to the social and economic pressures prevalent there.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us, and some of these young musicians have not even set foot in Central, let alone the St John’s Cathedral,” Gordon Siu Kwing-chue, the group’s founder and conductor, said.

Siu, who retired from the government in 2002 and has run a Western and a Chinese orchestra under the foundation since 2009, said music was not the ultimate goal.