Forty years ago, the Hong Kong University Music Department was founded at the behest of then–Vice Chancellor Rayson Huang (1920-2015). He had come to Hong Kong in 1938 following the Japanese invasion of Shanghai to be a student at HKU,
September, 2021
The American composer Charles Ives has often been associated with experimental music, or rather advanced music. One does not simply immerse himself in the academic music world through him. Indeed, his works include polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements and
The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically to the absence of war and violence, “such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in
The English composer Gustav Holst was born in Cheltenham on 21 September 1874. His father Adolph von Holst was an excellent pianist and organist, and he was musically active in his local community. He married his piano student Clara Lediard,
A famous writer once said, “Music is the most romantic of all arts.” And then he goes on to say that it “unlocks an unknown realm, a word with nothing in common with the surrounding outer worlds of the senses.
Alberto Nepomuceno (1864-1920) oversaw the transition of classical music in Brazil between the 19th and 20th centuries. After a youth in northeast Brazil in the city of Recife, in 1884 he moved to Rio de Janeiro, making his debut as
Paying tribute to unexpected sources of inspiration In my childhood years as a musician, I was inspired – paradoxically (I say as a concert pianist) – by people who, though they had little musical knowledge or training, were highly enthusiastic