Hong Kong composer Lam Fung on making music to order

For a special anniversary, some people might want a party or a new brand-name handbag, but for Maggie Holmes, commissioning an orchestra piece seems like a better idea.

A flautist with the SAR Philharmonic Orchestra, Holmes – who this year celebrates her 25th wedding anniversary and 20th year in Hong Kong – realises that there are two areas of life that give her great pleasure: playing with the orchestra and hiking in Tai Tam Country Park.

“It’s gives me profound happiness when it’s a beautiful day and I’m walking in such a beautiful place. I thought it would be nice to gift a piece of music to the community of musicians here.”

This piece has now been written. It is called Tai Tam Reflections, by local composer Lam Fung, and will be performed by the SAR Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hong Kong University Grand Hall on November 8. The programme also includes Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 2 with soloist Rachel Cheung and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.

Lam, who recently completed a stint as the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s composer-in-residence, says this is an unusual opportunity. “A private commission is very rare in Hong Kong, especially for orchestra. People just don’t think about commissioning a piece of music for commemorating an occasion.”

The composer recalls Holmes describing to him the kind of things she likes about Tai Tam. “Sometimes when we walked past certain places she would even tell me what she had imagined [could be] played there,” Lam says.

“For example, there’s this dam, and she said because of the way it looks, she always imagined a group of brass players, then she would imagine some others answering from far away. So that echo needed to be in my piece. She also told me very early on she wasn’t expecting some sort of pastoral music with imitations of birds or something like that. She is a flautist herself, so she said she has had quite enough of the flute playing bird-like melodies.”