The Box, Freespace, West Kowloon | Erhu Master Cai Zi Chu Wan Pin's First Concert at The Box, Freespace

Description

Hosted by Chez V Creation, Emperor Entertainment and WANPIN MUSIC, and titled sponsored by Soybean World Agricultural Technology, erhu master Chu Wan Pin's first-ever concert at the The Box, Freespace, BETWEEN WORLDS, will be held on 29 October. In this one-night-only concert, Chu will take the audience on a journey through the highs and lows of life, sharing his personal experiences and curiosity about life, death and different worlds through carefully crafted musical pieces.

Concert themed on life and death: 'Death may also be a bridge connecting different worlds'

For this concert, Chu has invited several outstanding Hong Kong musicians and artists to collaborate. 'I have a great team supporting me, with talented artists in costume and visual arts. I will be writing new pieces and rearranging old ones,' he says. He also reveals that there will be guest performers. As for the concept of the concert, Chu hopes to take the audience to different worlds with his music: 'This time, I have taken inspiration from four paintings to evoke four different worlds. I believe that each world has its own rules and culture, leading to different values. BETWEEN WORLDS explores the cycle of life and death, questioning what is the starting point and whether death is truly the end. I think death is just a state of being, and it may also be a bridge connecting different worlds, especially in different religions. For example, in Christianity, people go to heaven or hell after death, so is death, or even life, a preparation process for the next destination?'

Erhu as a part of his life; gratitude for The Bridge Curse for bringing erhu closer to the public

Chu started learning erhu, gaohu and banhu at the age of seven. He agrees that the erhu has a stereotypical image in the minds of the public: 'From Cantonese opera films in the past to now, the erhu is probably only played when someone dies or a building collapses in a film, creating a very sad atmosphere. I don't particularly want to break this impression; I just want to express who I am. I agree that the erhu can feel distant to the public, so I hope to use this concert to bridge the gap. But first, I don't want to create too much distance between the audience and myself.'

Chu has long considered the erhu as a part of his life; it is a medium for him to express his emotions. Through this concert, he will convey the ups and downs of his life with the erhu. He also shares that he has a wide range of emotions, from being touched, romantic and excited to sad: 'It's not just superficial; there are many different feelings that are hard to express in words. When I speak about them, they don't feel like the same thing. Whether it's with my family or my girlfriend, I've always preferred to express myself through music. It's the same with film language; if everything is spelled out, it wouldn't be interesting and it wouldn't convey the very vague emotions of humans. I like that music expression is not so direct.'

Speaking of film scoring, Chu has received numerous awards for his work in The Bridge Curse, including the Asian Film Award for Best Original Music, the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Original Film Score, the 20th China Changchun Film Festival Golden Deer Award and the 2nd Golden Panda Award for Film Music. He is grateful that The Bridge Curse allowed him to incorporate the erhu into the film's score: 'I think many Hong Kong people have watched The Bridge Curse, and I believe they didn't feel distanced by it; they may have even thought it sounded nice. I'm already very happy about that.'

Success in career and love; composing the score for Sylvia Chang's upcoming film Till We Meet Again; collaborating with JJ Lin on the theme song

With the recognition of producer Sylvia Chang, Chu recently composed the score for the upcoming fantasy romance film Till We Meet Again. Even more excitingly, he collaborated for the first time with Mandopop king JJ Lin, co-writing and performing the film's theme song, The Moment of Moments!

Apart from his musical achievements, Chu's relationship with Winka is also a topic of interest. Since the couple made their relationship public, they have not shied away from sharing their sweet moments together. Chu jokes, 'We've both gained a new group of listeners, and our fans are very accepting of each other's music, so we're quite happy. But now we have to dress up and fix our hair whenever we go out!'

Erhu master Chu Wan Pin's BETWEEN WORLDS concert will be held on 29 October at the The Box, Freespacel. Tickets went on sale yesterday (15/9), and VIP tickets were quickly sold out! The organiser is actively considering adding another show, so don't miss the chance to buy tickets now!

Sponsor: The Chinese Arts and Literature Association Limited

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