Interview by William Chan
To celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Catholic Diocese of Macau, a sacred music concert will be held on February 7 at the Sé* Cathedral, featuring seven music groups from Hong Kong and Macau.
One of the performing choirs is the Cantate Chorus, led by local conductor Vivian Ng Wai Hang; and her choir only made its debut in November. In an exclusive interview earlier this month, Ng shared her motivations for founding the choir, her musical insights from abroad, and her vision for the development of choral arts in Macau.
Vivian Ng’s musical resume is impressive. Her journey began at the Academia de Música de S. Pio X in Macau, followed by advanced studies in the prestigious Junior Music Programme at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In 2015, she won the “Cultural Affairs Bureau Prize” at the 33rd Macao Young Musicians Competition and later earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Oxford. She has just finished her Master of Sacred Music in Choral Conducting at the University of Notre Dame with a full scholarship.
Vivian Ng Wai Hang, artistic director of Macao Cantate Chorus, conducts her choir last November at St. Joseph’s Seminary Church. – Photos: Alexandre Chon
Founding Cantate Chorus: a stage for bridging passion & community
With numerous choirs already in Macau, why start a new one? Ng noted that she noticed a specific group of people: many who are passionate about singing, perhaps active in choirs during their school years, but who have not found a suitable platform to continue singing as adults. “I always think, Macau has a population of nearly 700,000. Even if only one in ten thousand is interested, there should be a space for them,” Ng repeatedly calculated this possibility during the interview. “The reason for founding Cantate Chorus is to provide another opportunity for those who are interested for various reasons but may not be singing already.”
This motivation defines the unique position of Cantate Chorus. It is not just a performing group, but a platform dedicated to promoting high-level small group singing and providing professional guidance for amateur singers. The choir members come from diverse backgrounds, including experienced singers, professionals who have rediscovered their passion after years, and even high school students. Ng believes this diversity is the source of the team’s vitality.
Her studies at Oxford and Notre Dame allowed Ng to experience two vastly different choral cultures in the UK and the US. She observed that the British choral tradition is long-standing, closely integrated with the church and colleges, and highly popularised, having developed over centuries. While the US has a shorter history, its choral culture is equally vibrant and widely participated in. “You can’t just turn Macau into the next UK,” Ng realistically noted, “because the cultural foundations are completely different.”
However, these overseas experiences were not in vain. They prompted Ng to consider how to cultivate a local choral scene on Macau’s soil by drawing on international experience. She hopes to build Cantate Chorus into a group capable of performing a variety of mainstream choral works. Within these “mainstream” works, sacred music holds a significant place. “We are not branding ourselves as a religious group,” she emphasised, “but because many great choral works are sacred in theme. We want to appreciate, interpret, and present these masterpieces from a holistic artistic perspective.” This artistic pursuit is reflected in their choice of repertoire for their debut, and their future hopes to perform larger works such as Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s The Creation.
As a new group, Cantate Chorus faces many challenges. The biggest difficulty is recruitment, especially the severe shortage of male voices, which directly affects the balance of the sections and the choice of repertoire. In addition, balancing the varying musical levels of the members – keeping the experienced engaged while helping beginners keep up – is a constant balancing act for Ng as a conductor.
“My ideal number is 50 or more members,” Ng said of her ambitions. “A sufficient number of people not only means we can tackle more large-scale works, but it also gives the team more room for development, such as creating different tiers based on skill level for more targeted training.”
Despite the challenges, from the success of their debut in November to their upcoming solemn performance at the Cathedral, Cantate Chorus, under Ng’s leadership, is steadily moving towards its musical ideals. This young conductor is injecting a new and exciting vitality into Macau’s sacred music tradition and choral arts with her knowledge, passion, and practice.
Readers who are interested in participating the choir can visit its Instagram page for more information: www.instagram.com/macaocantatechorus or contact via cantatechorusmacao@gmail.com .
Ng especially welcomes English speakers – many of whom she believes are among our readers –noting that they often feel underrepresented in Macau’s cultural landscape. She hopes to create a more inclusive space where their voices and contributions can thrive.
*The Portuguese word “Sé” means “See” (such as the Holy See in Rome) and “Cathedral”. – MPD
Cantate Chorus performs last November at St. Joseph’s Seminary Church.
