Written/Compiled and Reported by the MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel Life Network Editorial Team

Poetry often best captures the charm of words as musical notes. Therefore, one of the performances at Hong Kong Week 2014, *The Poet’s Muse – Yu Guangzhong Poetry Concert*, transforms the works accumulated over the years by Professor Yu Guangzhong into melodious compositions, delivering delightful musical pieces to all music lovers.

From 1974 to 1985, he taught in the Department of Chinese at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. After settling in Kaohsiung, he taught at National Sun Yat-sen University, where he currently holds an emeritus professorship. Born in Nanjing in 1928, Yu Guangzhong has published over 60 books, including poetry collections, essays, critiques, and translations. His poetry not only carries deep emotion but also resonates with an intrinsic harmony with music. His poems have been set to music by composers from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—some evoking nostalgia for his homeland, others posing questions about the world; some capturing the tranquility of landscapes, others reflecting on life. The concert will feature performances by renowned Hong Kong vocalists, including tenor David Quah, soprano Yan Yihua, mezzo-soprano Liu Yun, and bass-baritone Kwan Kit-ming. Pianist Kwok Pui-man will accompany, while veteran Taiwanese radio and TV host Xing Ziqing will recite selections of Yu Guangzhong’s poetry with delicate nuance.

The concert program carefully selects songs composed over the past thirty years by musicians from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and beyond, based on Yu Guangzhong’s poetry. These include timeless classics and newly arranged pieces. In the elegant Songshan Cultural and Creative Park Eslite Performance Hall, text and music intertwine and converse exquisitely, delivering a poetic musical experience like no other.The program includes a series of art songs such as *Tiptoe* (two versions), *Homesickness: Four Rhymes* (three versions), *Sunflowers*, *What Does the Rain Say?*, *The Night Watchman*, *Homesickness*, *The Answer*, *The Blind Fortune-Teller*, *You Smiled at Me Last Night*, *Firefly*, and *When I Am Dead*. To promote cultural exchange between Hong Kong and Taiwan, a new work, *Do You Want to Be a Mermaid?*, specially commissioned from Taiwanese composer Cho Ching-wen, will be performed by Taiwanese soprano Wang Wang-shu, mezzo-soprano Chen Jue-an, and pianist Tsai Meng-tzu. Additionally, *The World of Contradictions*, composed by Professor Chan Wai-kwong from the Music Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, will make its world premiere at this concert.

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