GBA Youth Orchestra ready to strike a chord

Finding a shared language

Yangying, a clarinet player from Shenzhen, sounds ecstatic about her time spent at GBAYO's inaugural training camp. "I have always enjoyed participating in symphony orchestras, and feel fortunate to have found friends from different parts of the GBA with whom I can play music."

Before coming to Hong Kong, she was concerned about her inability to speak Cantonese, but after landing at the training camp, all such doubts were put to rest. Her peers from Hong Kong made her feel completely at home. "I believe the GBAYO is an incredibly welcoming family. It's an organization where I can easily connect with everyone despite the language barrier."

Like several of her GBAYO fellows, Yangying is currently on vacation from school. She is happy to have spent her summer holidays doing something meaningful and considers herself lucky for having the opportunity. "Attending the concert tour will not only broaden my horizons but also enrich my holidays," she says.

The training camp, she says, was exciting but rather hectic. "I could see that the teachers felt responsible for us," Yangying says, adding that the process of getting to gel with fellow musicians and performing as an ensemble happened quite fast, thanks to active encouragement from the teachers. She is effusive in her praise for the clarinet teacher, Lorenzo Antonio Iosco, who is a bass clarinetist of the Hong Kong Phil. Besides "providing professional guidance", he also made a huge difference by putting the musicians at ease and "instilling confidence in them", Yangying says.

Choa says she couldn't be prouder of what the young musicians have achieved during the training camp. "I am very impressed with how quickly the young musicians picked up instructions from the coaches," she says, adding that acquiring of new skills was happening almost at the same speed as friendships were being forged.

"To see them happy and enjoying themselves is my greatest joy," she says, visibly elated at the success of the program.