Wendy Yau Sum Cheng has named her newest orchestral concert SENSES for a reason. The Vancouver composer’s production at the Orpheum Theatre next Saturday (November 29) will touch all five senses. Cheung plans to accomplish this through her cinematic score, as well as with tasty delicacies in the lobby and visual art that comes alive with fragrances.
“The audience will have a book where they can write their thoughts while they listen to the music—and they can draw and self-discover,” Cheung tells Pancouver over Zoom. “That’s the tactile component.”
She sees this as a novel concept in music. Moreover, Cheung maintains that the multidimensional approach will make the whole experience more immersive for audience members. She has created SENSES in collaboration with Maestro Ken Hsieh, music director of the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. The VMO will perform at the SENSES concert, which will also feature narration by actor and director Christopher Gaze and visual art created by Cheung’s mother.
“I’ve spent many years cultivating SENSES,” Cheung says. “It is an interesting experiment because there is a classical element of my background with some Cantopop influences.”
In addition, she has always admired the Greek composer, pianist, and producer Yanni. He has performed grand concerts with large orchestras and high-profile guest performers at world-famous sites like the Acropolis and the Great Wall of China.
“That was what I grew up with,” Cheung reveals. “I thought, ‘One day, I’m going to find my space and place on this stage.’ And I think that’s where this vision started.”
SENSES supports men’s mental health
Cheung, a UBC graduate with a double major in education and composing, has a deeper motivation behind SENSES. It’s also a fundraiser for HeadsUpGuys, a men’s mental health resource developed at the University of British Columbia and located on the Vancouver campus. Cheung is working with music therapist Dr. Alpha Woodward as a collaborator to advance the mental-health benefits of the SENSES program.
In fact, the composer wishes that a service like HeadsUpGuys was available to her father when he was younger.
“Growing up, I had to fight for my dad’s mental health,” Cheung discloses. “As far as I can remember, he was going through depression, anxiety, and insomnia. It had a very big impact on our family, especially my childhood.”
Cheung says that her parents are from Guangzhou in southern China and they moved to Vietnam for work. She remembers them often talking about what happened during the Vietnam War, which was a very scarring experience. They eventually left Vietnam and moved to Hong Kong, where Cheung was born. She immigrated to Canada with her parents when she was three years old.
“I started to play toy piano when I was three years old in the living room, while my mom was cooking in the kitchen,” Cheung recalls. “I remember she told me that she was humming a melody of a tune of a soap opera. And I was able to play it naturally on the toy piano, which only had one octave.”
That prompted Cheung’s mother to enroll her in piano lessons, even though the family didn’t have a lot of money. By the age of eight, Cheung was creating new melodies, mostly on the spot, devising a song within minutes.
“I was very confident in my music skills at a very young age,” she says.
Piano was Cheung’s best friend
In those days, Cheung’s mother was so busy working. Her father often remained home because of anxiety, irregular sleeping patterns, and other mental-health challenges. On some occasions, Cheung would write music to help her father sleep better.
“I was very lonely as a child growing up and the only thing I had was the piano,” Cheung says. “The piano is my best friend. It has been with me for the entire time; it listens to my soul. It was my way of expressing my emotions without having to put blame on my parents.”
She often played eight or 10 hours a day, and sometimes late into the night.
“I just became very good at it because of the sheer amount of hours that was spent there.”
The family mostly listened to Cantopop and Cheung became a huge fan of big Hong Kong singing and film stars such as Alan Tam and Jacky Cheung. Furthermore, Cheung learned piano from Joseph Koo, one of Hong Kong’s most admired composers as well as a Cantopop pioneer.
Koo immigrated to Canada in the 1990s and died in Richmond in 2023. Today, Cheung is the proud owner of Koo’s white Grand Yamaha piano, which he signed.
“He was a very calm and subtle and introverted type of person,” Cheung says. “He was so respectful of the other person, so sensitive.”
This extended to Koo’s teaching style. He never imposed his views on Cheung, preferring to make suggestions and ask for her opinions.
SENSES draws on Asian and European influences
As a piano student, Cheung also learned works by great European composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She passed the Royal Conservatory of Music levels to the associate diploma (ARCT) performer status before studying for her music degree at UBC.
Thus, it’s no surprise that her concerts combine the rigour of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras with the cinematic flavour of Hong Kong movie music.
She emphasizes that SENSES is open to interpretation. And she believes that its emotional arc will resonate in its own way with different audience members.
“Our names of our pieces are very inspiring,” Cheung notes. “We have The Dawn, Birth, Resilience, Love, Survival, Courage, Possibilities. We name each as a way of opening up our minds to different emotions that we might feel during the day.”
Through this concert, she also wants to pay tribute to her parents, who are both in their late 80s. She appreciates how her father was always so supportive of her musical aspirations even when he was going through his own battles. Both will be at the show.
“I would love for them to witness a production that I put so much of my heart and soul into,” Cheung states. “I do wish that more people in this world can be supported by mental wellness.”
Wendy Yau Sum Cheung is the curator of SENSES. The Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra will perform this work with narration by Christopher Gaze at the Orpheum Theatre next Saturday (November 29). For tickets and more information, visit sensesconcert.com.
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