Many things have changed in the world, especially in the past year alone. But many other things will never change. With heart and soul, we refuse to let them go. Things like tradition, culture, music, family, love. Beautiful things like that.
SEGi College Subang Jaya is proud and honoured to share our very own musical master and world-renowned composer Mr Yii Kah Hoe’s gift of music in a very special piece that he’s adapted from an original written ninety-seven years ago in Beijing, China. Refusing to give in and give up to the pang of missing his family back home, with only his daughter with him this year, Mr Yii felt compelled to create this inspiring rendition of a classical piece.
On New Year’s Eve almost a century ago, Liu Tian Hua, a music professor at Peking University, felt for his music students who couldn’t go home for the Chinese New Year in winter, and so invited them into his home for dinner on the eve of the Chinese New Year. With a heart filled with love and warmth, Liu opened his home to those who couldn’t be with their families on this very special occasion and was inspired to create the piece 良宵, which means ‘beautiful night’.
And Mr Yii Kah Hoe, with a heart filled with love, decided to write and play his beautiful adaptation of the same music. A piece of music to share with his family back home whom he can’t be with, with friends, and with the rest of the world. The notes start softly and calmly, expressing the gentle, sad longing of the heart. As they rise and fall, just like our feelings do, the music fills our ears and hearts with warmth, and hope, and joy. Warmth for our families whom we can or can’t be with, hope for a better future, joy for all the gifts that we’ve been given. The gifts of music, of family, of love, of life itself.
Choosing this particular classic was brilliant, as brilliant as Mr Yii Kah Hoe’s astounding mind and awe- inspiring talents. A musical prodigy schooled by the Malaysian Institute of Fine Art and the Xi’an Conservatory of Music in Shaanxi, China, Mr Yii Kah Hoe has a breath-taking list of accomplishments and accolades to his name. In fact, he is Google-able! His many stars are long, too long to list them all, but among them, he is a respected Malaysian composer with international acclaim, and celebrated all across the world in the musical and educational arena and beyond. He was the winner of 11th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards (Malaysia, 2014), the winner of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra Forum for Malaysian Composers (Malaysia, 2007), the third-prize winner in the International Composition for Chinese Orchestra (Singapore 2006), the finalist of the International Composers Competition “Città di Udine” (Italy, 2010). Mr Yii is also the winner of the prestigious National Outstanding Educator Award 2018 presented by the Private Education Cooperative of Malaysia.
Mr Yii Kah Hoe’s works have been performed in many international music festivals and he has collaborated with numerous famous musicians and orchestras worldwide. In the fall of 2015, he was the Scripps College Erma Taylor O’Brien Distinguished Visiting Professor at Scripps College in Claremont, California, USA. He was guest composer and guest speaker at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, England, UK (2013 and 2014), York St John University, England, UK (2014), Iowa State University, Iowa, USA (2015), Yale-NUS College, Singapore (2017), the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Tianjin, China (2017) and Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand (2017). He was the president of the Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers (2014 – 2016). And this next one we say with great pride indeed. Mr Yii Kah Hoe has been a senior lecturer at SEGi College Subang Jaya since 2000.
This Chinese New Year, many of us can’t go home to have our traditional (even sacred to some) New
Year’s Eve reunion dinner with our families. But we can send them love and inspiration instead through this beautiful piece of music and this inspiring story. We can tell them the story of how a hundred years ago, one beautiful heart shared his home and his music with those in need. And we can tell them the story of how Mr Yii Kah Hoe, with a heart just as beautiful, shares his gift of music not just this Chinese New Year, but everyday.
And if you would also like to learn music, come to SEGi College Subang Jaya and learn from the Master himself, Mr Yii Kah Hoe. Our music programme with him as the World Renowned Composer will amaze you and show you musical skills you never knew you had. Then you, too, can give the gift of love, through music.
