After months of preparation, thousands of e-mails, and numerous rehearsals, our two-day international composition conference, The Keyboard in the 21st Century, concluded with great success.  It featured all 7 HKBU faculty composers, a dozen guest composers, and 13 musicians in a series of 5 concerts, 2 lectures, and a roundtable discussion.  I was especially pleased with the diversity of styles that were represented, including acoustic, electro-acoustic, and intermedia works for piano, harpsichord, and synthesizer.  It was wonderful to hear the music of our Featured Guest Composer, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, from Eastman (I last saw Carlos in Maccagno, Italy while teaching at the soundSCAPE Festival in 2016–where will we meet next?), as well as HKBU’s own Dr. Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Composer, George Tsontakis.  Another highlight for me was the Hong Kong premiere of my recent piano work, Inner Truth, by Linda Yim.  I hope this is the first of many such successful conferences bringing together composers and performers at HKBU in future years.

Of course, an effort like this requires countless people working behind the scenes to make it happen.  I would like to thank Johnny Poon, Chair of Music, and Grace Chan, my point person for all matters large and small in the Music office, for their tireless support.