The Chinese University of Hong Kong Chorus (aka CU Chorus, formerly named The Student Chorus, the Student Union of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, ) is founded by a group of students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in December 1972. For each season, the chorus would have its Annual Concert and Christmas Concert held respectively on the middle and the end of a year. While the former one would have a showcase on serious choral music chosen with selected artistic themes, the latter one would be a demonstration of the chorus' vividness and ability in engaging a pop, contemporary style featuring arrangements of Christmas pieces. The most recent Annual Concert and Christmas Concert would be respectively "The Music of

Jan Tien-hao Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article N ...

" held in June 2014 and "CU Chorus x

Howard McCrary Howard McCrary is an American musician, entertainer, and actor. He was nominated for Grammy award in 1986 for a gospel record entitled, "So Good." Credited for vocal performances and arrangements on the music albums of Chaka Khan, Quincy Jones, M ...

", featuring the Grammy-nominated jazz musician Howard McCrary with a good number of jazz arrangements from traditional Christmas songs in December 2012. Throughout the years, the chorus encompasses a repertoire ranging from Renaissance motets to Mahlerian choral symphonies (the chorus is the first university chorus in Hong Kong which has performed all choral symphonies of Mahler), up to the most avant-garde pieces from composers all over the world. As the pioneer of contemporary choral music, the chorus commissions young Hong Kong composers for new works every year. Recent commission works includes Dennis Wu's ''Below the Kau To Shan'', Andy So's ''The Flower of Love'', Samson Young's ''When He Said'' etc., with the most recent one being Lok-yin Tang's ''Frozen Tears I and II''. To lay a better foundation for its never-ending artistic pursuit, CU Chorus established charitable organization status with "CU Chorus Association" (a limited company) in January 2012. The new governing body, with its finer division of labour in artistic, management and administrative aspects, could facilitate the collaboration of CUHK undergraduates, postgraduates and alumni in their efforts to boost CU Chorus—a group coming from and basing in CUHK—to ever-greater artistic heights.

Attention from Israel

In May 2009, the chorus won high praise in Israel because of a video clip that its members posted on YouTube. The YouTube video clip documents a performance of ''Choral Selection from Schindler's List'' (sung in Hebrews and Yiddish) by the chorus in 2007, and the clip was posted immediately after the performance. Shortly before the Holocaust Day 2009, after the film had been on the site for a long time without drawing much attention, it was discovered by an Israeli viewer who had started to distribute it via Email to his friends as "A Chinese choir performs songs in Hebrew to celebrate Holocaust Day". Within a few days, the film became a great hit in Israel and had over 100,000 viewings in Israel and abroad within one month, it also receiving hundreds of moving reactions by Israelis and Jews. The popularity of the clip attracted a broad media coverage, including a news article by Yedioth Ahronoth, the best-selling newspaper in Israel.

Selected repertoire

* Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, "Choral" *

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, "Resurrection" *

: Symphony No. 3 in D minor (Thailand première) *

: Symphony No. 8 in E flat major (Hong Kong and Macao première) * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: ''Requiem'', K626 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mass in C major, K317, "Coronation" *

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...

: ''Which was the son of...'' * Andy So: ''The Flower of Love'' (World première in 2008 Shanghai Concert) *

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

: '' Symphony of Psalms'' * Xian Xinghai: '' Yellow River Cantata'' (original version, Moscow version) * Dennis Wu: ''Below the Kau To Shan'' (World première in 2008 Annual Concert) * Samson Young: ''When He Said'' (World première in 2009 Annual Concert) * Lok-yin Tang: ''Frozen Tears I, II'' (World première in 2012 and 2013 Annual Concert respectively) * Ng Wah-hei: ''The Blossom'' (World première in 2013 Annual Concert) *

: ''Dream Catcher'' (World première in 2014 Annual Concert)

Touring record

*1977: University of the Philippines Diliman ( Manila), University of the Philippines Baguio ( Baguio) *1987: National Taiwan University ( Taipei) *1991:

National Cheng Kung University National Cheng Kung University (NCKU; ) is a public research university located in Tainan, Taiwan. The university is best known for engineering, computer science, medicine, and planning and design. As a top university in Taiwan, NCKU has played ...

( Tainan) *1994: Central Conservatory of Music ( Beijing), Tsinghua University ( Beijing) *1996: National Taiwan University ( Taipei),

( Tainan) *1997: Nanjing Union Theological Seminary ( Nanjing) *2001:

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

( Singapore),

Singapore Bible College Singapore Bible College (SBC) is an evangelical Bible college in Singapore. SBC has over 500 students, representing 25 countries. The current principal is Rev. Dr. Clement Chia. History Singapore Bible College was established in 1952. It was fo ...

( Singapore), Guangzhou University ( Guangzhou) *2003: Shanghai Jiao Tong University ( Shanghai) *2006: Shih Hsin University ( Taipei) *2007: Macao International Music Festival ( Macao), Sun Yat-sen University ( Guangzhou) *2008: Shanghai Normal University ( Shanghai) *2009: Dayeh University ( Changhua County),

Taipei Fushin Private School Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the Capital city, capital and a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality of the Taiwan, Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Regions of Taiwan, Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of t ...

( Taipei) *2010:

Siam Philharmonic 580px, Siam Philharmonic Orchestra members during their 2004 Singapore tour The Siam Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 2002 in Bangkok, Thailand, under the name "Mifa Sinfonietta". At that time it was a small chamber ensemble devoted to b ...

( Bangkok) *2011:

Crescendo Voices In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings still require interpretation by the performer depen ...

(

Johor Bahru Johor Bahru (), colloquially referred to as JB, is the capital city of the state of Johor, Malaysia. It is located at the southern end of Peninsular Malaysia,along the north bank of the Straits of Johor, opposite of the city-state Singapore. T ...

) *2013: Taichung Chamber Choir ( Taichung) *2014:

National Tainan University The National University of Tainan (NUTN; ) is a university in West Central District, Tainan, Taiwan. History NUTN was founded during the Taiwan under Japanese rule, Japanese rule as Tainan Normal School in June 1899. In January 1946, after Retro ...

( Tainan) *2015:

Shanghai Spring International Music Festival Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

( Shanghai) *2018: National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei Contemporary Choir ( Taipei) *2019: Taipei International Choral Festival ( Taipei)

References

External links

*(Chinese/English
CU Chorus, Official SiteCU Chorus YouTube ChannelThe Chinese University of Hong Kong
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinese University of Hong Kong Chorus Chinese University of Hong Kong Musical groups established in 1972 University choirs Hong Kong choirs