Concert gives child composers a chance to express their creativity

What kind of music are young children likely to create? Junior Original Concert, an annual event organised by the Yamaha Music Foundation, provides a glimpse of their range.

Since the first concert was held in Japan in 1972, it has showcased the compositions of budding Beethovens to audiences around the globe. The idea is to develop children's creativity and ability for self-expression through music. An Asia-Pacific event was established in 1991, and this year's event was held in Hong Kong - a decade after the city last hosted the concert.

In the spotlight were 12 children from eight to 15 years old, whose compositions were selected from 10,000 submissions from around the region. Typically, the first cut of entrants are invited to perform before a panel of music teachers in each country; and they send tapes of shortlisted music to Yamaha Japan, which makes the final selection.

This year's youngsters came from the mainland and Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand, but also as far away as Australia and Mexico. As the host city, Hong Kong fielded three candidates: eight-year-old Kwan Nok-ching, Jasmine Tso Yuen-see, 10, and Anson Wong Ying-shun, 12.

Hong Kong singer-songwriter Anthony Lun Wing-leung, who has written many pop hits over the past two decades, spent an afternoon with the young composers just over a week ago before their concert, co-organised by the Tom Lee Music Foundation.

"The Junior Original Concert is such a wonderful opportunity because you don't see many chances being given to young composers - or any composers, actually. It shows that they all have imagination. We just need to give them a boost," he says.

Nok-ching, normally a quiet and shy child, came alive when she was asked to play a part of her entry, . Swaying to the melody and deftly fingering the electone keyboard, she was clearly immersed in the music. She started playing the electronic keyboard when she was three, and has since written three pieces of music. "I like the electone because it can make a lot of different sounds, which is so much fun," she says.