Going for a song - chamber choir's ambitious target
Chamber choir Die Konzertisten achieves high-quality performanceson a shoestring, writes Sam Olluver
You may not be familiar with the name Die Konzertisten or even know what it means, but if Kenneth Lee Kun-fai has his way, the chamber choir he founded five years ago will soon be impressing itself on Hong Kong's mainstream arts scene alongside the better-known classical music ensembles.
It was in 2008 that Lee scattered the first seeds of an idea among his friends, many of whom were members of larger ensembles, such as opera choruses and youth choirs. Lee, a business management graduate who sings tenor with the choir, recalls their consensus of opinion: "Why don't we form a chamber choir and do something smaller scale that requires more delicate and refined singing?"
Although that milieu required an exceptional quality of voice, a high level of musicianship and a long-term commitment, a core of singers was already to hand: a number of the choir's founding members had already sung with illustrious British groups such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner's Monteverdi Choir, several Cambridge University college choirs and St Paul's Cathedral Choir in London.
And so to the choice of name: Die Konzertisten. These were the singers in J.S. Bach's time who were entrusted with the demanding solo parts in church choral music. The new ensemble felt it was up to those expectations and christened itself accordingly. The choir's subsequent participation in the 2011 Hong Kong Arts Festival fittingly saw them perform Bach's six motets in different churches around the city.
The name of the choir is in some measure a misnomer, in that solo quality should not predominate over vocal blend: "It's important for members of the choir to have good voices," says Lee, "but not big egos, thinking they are solo singers and not primarily part of an ensemble."
He says that with the availability of such talent being self-evident, it is hard to fathom why both locals and outsiders have a negative and unjustifiable impression of the city's choral scene - that standards are mediocre and likely to stay at sub-international level in perpetuity.