Music therapist strikes right note with choir founded to help stroke patients in Hong Kong regain their voice
- Chung King-man says music therapy can help lower anxiety and reduce the impact of trauma among stroke patients
- Apart from stroke choir, he set up two singing groups for cancer patients, with the same aim of making life better for them
Some sing it loud. Others lip-synch while shaking their tambourines and maracas in rhythm.
The group of around 30 people, most of whom have recovered from strokes, gather at the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation’s service centre in Quarry Bay to find their voice in a choir.
The singers soon blend their voices together as they belt out one tune after another in the ensemble session. Many elderly choir members become excited and throw themselves heart and soul into the vocal workout the moment they hear the first few notes of The Bund – a Canto-pop hit from the late 1970s.
Chung King-man, who initiated the “stroke choir”, said the elderly members liked to sing familiar songs.
“I select tunes based on their needs and cultural tastes,” he said. “I also write new songs for them.”