Yamaha Electone Festival 2006

On 25th June 2006, Electone players, parents, and friends gathered in the Theater of Hong Kong City Hall for the 37th Yamaha Electone Festival. The competition comprised “Open Section” (divided into Open Age Group and Junior Group) and “Graded Section” (divided into Grade 6, 7, 8 & 9). The winners of the “Graded Section” were already selected on May 22. The program of the day was divided into four sections, including competition for Open class contestants, Winners’ concert, Free-Style performance, and last but not least, a prize-presentation ceremony for winners who had dedicated their countless time and effort for the festival. 

Open Class Competition

Ching-Lap Chan, our winner of the open class (open age) is a very skillful musician who excels not only in performing live, but also in arranging and composing. ‘April River’ is an original, new age number that has distinctive, contrasting paragraphs, with luxurious orchestral arrangement. Blending the environmental effects found in the electone’s patch library, the dreamy image he was trying to portray with his song was easily conveyed.
Meanwhile, the champion of the open class (junior section), Debbie Yee-Ting Lai presented ‘Granada’, a Spanish folk song with Chinese classical instruments. She chose to play her solos with Dizhi (Chinese Flute), and the expressiveness of such instrument brought a brand new sensation to the Spanish tune. So how did a Spanish song sound with Chinese instrument? Believe it or not – with Lai’s confidence and ability to deal with the full range of instruements, it is proved that her attempt was a successful one.

NEW! Highlights from Free-Style performance

New, exciting and fun – it’s the perfect description for the free style performance that was just introduced this year. With an aim to provide more performance opportunities for electone musicians, the six groups who signed up this year brought plenty of fun and excitement to the Theater.

‘Five’, a five-piece group is an interesting combination of dance and live music, won the audience’s poll and took “Audience’s Favorite Group” and “Best Showmanship” Awards home. They invited two tap/ jazz dancers jam and interact with three electone / keyboard players, synchronizing their dancing beats with the vivid tempo of the Chinese classical pieces. At the mean time, in order to bring the best Aladdin experience, ‘Seven’s Arabian costume fitted perfectly with the background of the song, ‘A Whole New World’. Congratulations to these seven little ‘Arabian’ musicians! 

‘Best Creativeness Award’ winner ‘Happy Music Friends’ is a heart-warming group formed by ten kids who are currently enrolled in Tom Lee Music center’s courses. As brave as Peter Pan, some of them sang, and the rest played their hand chimes, clarinet, and keyboards confidently on stage. These kids radiated waves of joy, and moved everyone in the auditorium with the song of their choice ‘Somewhere out-there’.   

‘Barbeque Pork and Quail Egg’ is an energetic, interesting and fun-seeking group, formed by three boys aged around 10. The little musicians played a pretty funky groove, with distorted guitars solos, bass and synthesizer pads, infusing the piece with a retro flavor. Mr. ‘Quail Egg’ played the lead guitar part on his keyboards, while the ‘Barbeque Pork’ ensemble accompanied Egg’s solo with organ, bass and guitars. The team spirit among the boys was fantastic and from the smile on their faces, they enjoyed their music-making process as much as the audience. If you have no idea why these boys named themselves as Barbeque Pork and Quail Egg – have a look at the group’s snap shot and you’ll find out why!  

Guest Performer: Miss Izumi Takada

Young, beautiful and musically talented, Miss Izumi Takada is the 2nd Grand prize winner of the International Electone Competition, 1999 (Popular Music Section). All the way from Japan, Miss Takada took Hong Kong’s audience on a sight-seeing train to Kobe, with her beautiful electone composition called “Windscape”. The acoustic piano introduction was charming, like a gentle breeze in early summer. As the song built up to its chorus section, the texture gets richer and truly, it’s a piece of precision. And exclusively for Hong Kong’s ears only, Miss Takada was invited to jam with Tom Lee Music’s Saxophone tutor Mr Alan Cheng. On stage they played an instrumental version the recent Cantonese hit, “Tong-Hua”. The soulful expression and improvisation of the duet told the story of the song through infectious melodies, well-loved by the audience.

Thanks for all the participants’ and their families’ support for Yamaha Electone Festival 2006. Our Champions from the Open Section, Ching-Lap Chan and Debbie Lai will represent Hong Kong to participate in the Asian Electone Festival 2006 in Singapore. Let’s wish them luck!