Who are your mentors or inspiration?
My parents, who are classical singers. They provided a solid classical music basis for me before I began exploring pop music. Then when it comes to pop music, I owe a lot to Alex Fung, my producer for many years, from whom I learnt a lot about production skills and how my compositions can [improve]. Previously, whenever I came up with a melody, I wasn’t brave enough to add [symphonic] arrangements to it. I would just rely on my trusty team for that. [However, I started learning from them and taking classes as well, and] five years ago, I started applying [my new-found] skills to my music. I also spent the past three years learning how to write orchestral music. All of this have resulted in the two upcoming concerts, which mark a major personal milestone.

Tell us about The Singing Canvas concert.
There are two parts. The first part is a new instrumental work made up of four pieces themed around gratitude. I’m not a professional pianist and I have thought of entrusting it to someone else to perform, but the HKPhil encouraged me by saying that the audience would have wanted the composer herself to play the piece.

I’ll then sing in the second part, [for which I have] invited two other composers, Alex Fung and Tsui Chin-hung, to work on the orchestral arrangements. Chin-hung also helped me translate my ideas and music into a clean orchestral score for the conductor.

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What was the creative process like for you?
The HKPhil will be performing my first ever symphonic piece and I’m very proud of it, especially since there [haven’t been] a lot of female symphonic composers [in the past]. Although my piece may be “kindergarten level” to the HKPhil musicians, who are used to playing Stravinsky or Rachmaninoff, I have to start somewhere. While my capacity is nowhere near [the likes of] Mozart, Beethoven and Joe Hisaishi, I feel I’m doing what these great composers were doing: making symphonic music.

To prepare for it, I’ve been taking online classes, including film score writing, and purchasing and studying great composers’ works. And sometimes their work is so great it’s frustrating. Like, how can they possibly create something so complex and stirring?

My parents’ early classical music education also has an influence on me now, as I develop the sense to balance the volume of different instrumental parts of an orchestral piece.

Who are your favourite composers?
Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel and Rachmaninoff.

What was the greatest challenge throughout this process?
The workload has been crazy. People told me I got thinner, and that’s probably because of this. Even on the day of the HKFA, I had to get back to work right after. In truth, I didn’t intend for the two concerts to take place one week after the other because I didn’t want to compromise on the quality of either, but due to changes in venue availability [I had to present them so close together]. But I’m glad that I can put on the concerts.

What is your other concert, The Pink Canvas, about?
This is my first immersive concert and it is a combination of my previous art project, The Missing Something: The Pink Room Experience [March and April of 2021] and my installation called The Singing Canvases [December 2021]. Usually the stage at a pop concert [faces the audience and that means] the audience can’t be “enveloped” in an immersive musical experience. This time, I picked The Box at Freespace, which allows for a four-side stage. It is also set up with the L-Acoustics sound system, which I will use to create some special sound travelling effects.

The audience can walk, sit or lie around the space as I perform in the centre. There will be two sessions to the performances, and during the intermission they can walk around and appreciate the art pieces I’ve made. It’s a very free concert experience.

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And the audience can drink inside the venue?
Yes, there will be cocktails and mocktails. I want this to be different from your usual concert experiences. It’ll be relaxing.

Why do you want to stage an immersive concert?
First, unlike a concert hall, the theatre is intimate, and I want to introduce this to concertgoers. Second, there is always an invisible wall between the performer and the audience. No matter how close to the stage my fans are, there is still distance between us. With this immersive concert, I want my audience to experience a production [without that sense of distance] from my space.

What is the message of The Pink Canvas?
The first session of the concert is about [reducing the] labelling in our society, which is taken from The Pink Room Experience; and the second session is about gratitude, which is taken from The Singing Canvases. These two themes are what the modern world can still work on, and I don’t think I should only [be able to] talk about them once in my art exhibitions.

You have a lot on your plate already, but do you have more in mind?
I’ve also landed a role in a film and I will be acting in a three-person drama on stage at the end of this year.

Beyond that, I want to keep exploring immersive concerts, which is one of my favourite artforms at the moment.

The Missing Something. May 12 to 13, 2023. Concert Hall, City Hall. Find out more at hkphil.org

The Pink Canvas. May 18 to 21, 2023. The Box, Freespace, West Kowloon. Find out more at westkowloon.hk

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