Members of the University of Macau (UM) Moon Chun Memorial College (MCMC) on Tuesday 19 April performed at Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th Birthday Party at the Macau Tower, at the invitation of the British Consulate to Hong Kong and Macao.
The 90th Birthday celebration was a resounding success, due in no small part, to the arresting opening of the event by MCMC members and the Macao Orchestra brass section’s performances of the Gordon Jacob arrangement and fanfare of the British national anthem, which was commissioned for the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953.
The Macao Orchestra brass section was conducted by Prof Kit Thompson. Meticulously reconstructing the music from fragments archived in the Black Watch Regiment’s music library, now under the auspices of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (HKAPA), Prof Thompson described his quest as a fascinating and engaging labour of love.
The MCMC’s Full Blue winner, Nelson Kong, a second-year student, acquitted himself with due aplomb, playing timpani with the brass orchestra, like a true professional musician he is becoming.
That students and professional musicians alike collaborated in such a high-profile occasion was a brave initiative and rare privilege indeed. They did Her Majesty proud. MCMC students benefited greatly from rehearsing and performing with two highly acclaimed professional musicians, namely Michael Kirby, principal clarinet of the Macao Orchestra; and Leung Yan Chiu, a sheng (a traditional Chinese instrument) player from the Macao Chinese Orchestra.
Caroline Wilson CMG, Her Majesty’s consul general to Hong Kong and Macao, was delighted with the musicians, as was Ms Chan Hoi Fan, the guest of honour and secretary for administration and justice of the Macao SAR.
A 14-member ensemble of Chinese and Western orchestral instruments, conducted by Dr Patricia Thompson, premièred a new arrangement of the song, ‘Send Me a Rose’, which is a Xinjiang folksong fused with tango rhythm. Eddy Tse, an HKAPA graduate specialising in Chinese percussion, arranged the song especially for MCMC students to perform with the British consul general, and also for the MCMC French High Table on 23 April.
As shown in the photographs below, Caroline Wilson plays the yangqin, and she has expressed a keen wish to perform with MCMC’s ensemble in the near future.
Source: Moon Chun Memorial College
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