Name: Kevin Cheng
Voice: Tenor
Joined: December 2022
Q. At what age did you first start singing in a choir?
A. I re-discovered choral singing at my university’s choir, which I conducted for a year. Afterwards I sang with the Learners Chorus in Hong Kong as a tenor, Assistant Conductor and Vice-Chairman, until my wife Sally Ho and I decided to move to London. (Sally is a soprano in the LSC!)
Q. What did you get out of singing in a choir?
A. Enjoyment of music, camaraderie… the list goes on, but I met Sally at the choir, so there is only one correct answer!
Q. When did you came to London and why?
A. We moved to the UK in late 2021. There are hundreds of reasons for the Hong Kong diaspora which we are a part of, and much was written about it, so I’ll spare you a thousand-word summary. London is the obvious choice for us – it is home to some of the best orchestras and choirs (and pubs!!)
Q. What appealed to you about singing with the LSC?
A. In 2007, I was lucky to have attended an LSO/LSC concert featuring Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Orff’s Carmina Burana. I never imagined that one day I’d get to sing in the choir which blew the roof off the Barbican!
Q. Have you had any musical training other than singing in a choir?
A. I have played the piano all my life and used to take lessons in Hong Kong, pre-COVID. I also had singing lessons for some years with Apollo Wong, an operatic bass-baritone who is also the Chorus Master of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus. I used to play the viola too.
Q. How do you manage a busy chorus schedule alongside the rest of your life?
A. I am very lucky to work completely remotely and my colleagues are overseas, so I can choose to just drop whatever I’m working on, head to rehearsal, and finish it later. Sally never fails to remind me that it’s time for us to go, too!
Q. What sort of music do you listen to at home?
A. Usually reference recordings for whatever the choir is doing – a habit from my Assistant Conductor years. I was often short on time to properly prepare, due to my full-time job, so I’d put recordings on repeat to give myself a good enough grasp of the music – and so as not to embarrass myself when I had to rehearse the choir with short notice. Otherwise, it’s usually whatever I am studying at the time, or maybe some Japanese anime or games music.
Q. What’s been the biggest musical moment for you in the LSC so far?
A. Finally getting to sing in Beethoven’s 9th! I prepared the Learners Chorus in Hong Kong for a performance in 2019 that was ultimately cancelled. It was fantastic to finally sing it with the LSO and the wonderful François-Xavier Roth.
Q. Aside from the music, what else do you get from being in the chorus?
A. A sense of finally finding home. We were on the move for quite some time after arrival and couldn’t commit to rehearsals, so it was a huge relief to finally settle down and be able to join a choir again. Back to normal at last!
Q. How did you prepare for the audition?
A. It’s been years since I last auditioned as an applicant, so I was nervous. I decided to pick a Tosti piece that I could sing comfortably and could manage to do things I’d look for when I auditioned singers. I was so glad I picked something manageable – a household renovation incident kept me up past 4am right before my 11am audition!
Q. Is there one piece of advice you’d give to someone considering joining the chorus?
A. If you are already considering joining the chorus, what are you waiting for? This is a wonderful group to sing with: the members are friendly, the quality of music-making outstanding, the admins are super helpful and of course, applying is easy.