World-beaters in our Backyard

23 January 1998, HK Magazine, Chuck Montgomery

They may not get as much attention as our Olympic windsurfing champ, but all these guys are at the top of their class.

Heavenly Harps in Hong Kong?

There was no crowd of screaming groupies or even a washed-up paparazzi with a disposable camera when the five members of the King's Harmonica Quintet returned victorious from the mouth organ World Championship in Germany last October.

"The media weren't interested in our achievement," laments Dr. Ho Pak-cheong, the group's first treble. "Compare it to San San and there's quite a difference in interest. I was disappointed."

But when they staged a homecoming concert at City Hall last month, the quintet was redeemed. More than 1,000 people showed up to hear what critics around the world have been raving about for nearly a decade. This is not your run-of-the-mill, wailing hound-dog variety blues harp. What the uninitiated would expect to be a quirky, even comical attempt at "Spring" from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, was delicate and powerful enough to shame the snidest of cynics.

In fact, the five have been credited with revolutionizing the art of group harmonica performance. "This is the finest example of group playing that I have ever heard using harmonica," gushed British classical harmonica legend Douglas Tate.

The quintet rearranges string quartets and other classical works to suit their own humble organs, and the resulting works are shocking in their beauty. Their premier concert in 1990 prompted one reviewer to rave that they had created "the most fascinating exercise in music rearrangement since Kizuhito Yamashita played a solo of Dvorak's New World Symphony." Their version of Shostakovich's Third String Quartet was praised as "virtually an improvement on the Russian's work."

The quintet met as students at King's College in the late 1970s, when harmonica bands were standard fare in Hong Kong schools (there were more than 20 harp ensembles). But in the 1980s the government changed its music education policy, phasing out the lowly harmonica in favor of traditional classical instruments.

"Five schoolboys who shared the same passion for the harmonica saw what was happening, were dissatisfied with it, and refused to take it hands down," says Dr. Ho.

Since the quintet's inception in 1987, Dr. Ho and fellow huffers Kenneth Chan Shu-keung, Lau Chun-bong, Rocky Lok Ying-kei and Johnny Kuan Man-hou have wowed critics at music festivals around the globe. Now, through concerts, workshops and promotion of their homemade CD, they are determined to deepen our appreciation of their favorite instrument.

To achieve this gargantuan goal, they've now got a Website promoting Hong Kong's harmonica renaissance (http://home.netvigator.com/~cblau/khq/) and realistic expectations. "We want to bring about a small climax for harmonica in Hong Kong," Dr. Ho says modestly.