Katterwall's General Manager

K: What's your background?
C: "I started learning piano when I was 7 but I didn't really like it until I was 16 when I met my last piano teacher. I also started singing in my school choir from 11, and conducting from 12 - coaching my class choir for a competition every year. I took up conducting again at my Residential Hall at HKU while I was doing my music degree. Upon graduation, I worked with HK Arts Festival and Edward Lam Dance Theatre."

K: How did you get involved with Katterwall?
C:"I  met Bethan in 2000 when I auditioned for the first choir she set up at HKYAF. I sang with her for almost a year and then we lost contact with each other. I met her again at the last performance of the HKAF 2003 where I was working in Customer Services. I was talking with my colleagues about what we would do when we were unemployed. Then the next day Bethan asked if I would like to help set up a choir with her. And that's how I started, helping her with Kassia Women's Choir once a week until 2005 when I started working as a full-time administrator.

K: What's been your scariest moment so far?
C: "I guess they are from two Women's Choir concerts. We booked City Hall for "Stocking Filler"in 2004 but it had a fire ten days before the concert. Luckily, Island School lent us their school hall. For "Disco Divas" in 2005 at the HKAPA, there were some mis-communications between me and the stage manager. We didn't have a keyboard when I turned up at the venue at 2pm on the day! I called Tom Lee and it was sorted - I don't know what would have happened otherwise!"

K: What are your fondest Katterwall memories from the past 5 years?
- When we got the Cultural Centre Concert Hall for the first Raising the Roof in 2005 with HK Welsh Male Voice Choir.
- Seeing Kassia Youth Choir on TV with local Pop Stars.
- Hearing Hullaballooers singing Cantonese songs.
- The sound that Kassia Men's Chorus made in their last Christmas concert 'Let it Ring, Let it Swing, Let it Snow!'

K: What are you looking forward to in the future?
C: "One day, local students will take vocal lessons as they take piano lessons; music teachers & school principals will understand it takes more than a mouth and two arms to be a choir conductor; and Kassia Choirs will tour China. And of course, one day Soho Collective will conquer the world!"

Kassia was Byzantine nun and composer of chants and hymns. She was born c.810 AD in Constantinople. According to tradition, she defied Emperor Theophilos during a bride show in which a woman was selected to be queen on the basis of her physical appearance rather than her compassion, honesty, or her ability to lead. Casting his eye upon the charms of a lovely woman, the emperor declared that in this world, women were the occasion of much evil." And surely, sir," said Kassia, "they have likewise been the occasion of much good." Theophilos rejected Kassia and the incident led to her religious calling. She founded an abbey in 843 where she was the first abbess. It was here that her vocation, leadership and musical gifts were able to flourish. 23 of her chants are still used in the Greek Orthodox Church today, 1,200 years on.

5th March: 'Divas In Training' with Kassia Youth Choir @ HK Fringe Club
Kelly Clarkson, Katherine Jenkins, Dusty Springfield...
Tickets from HK Ticketing. Tel: 31 288 288

12th & 13th March: 'Feelin' Groovy' with Kassia Men's Chorus @ Amici, Wanchai
Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Beatles, Beach Boys...
Tickets from Katterwall

13th March: 'Open Rehearsal' with Hullaballoo @ YWCA, Bonham Road
Free entrance RSVP to camille@katterwall.com

3rd - 5th April: 'Into The Groove - A Madonna Tribute' with Soho Collective @ Backstage
Like A Prayer, Vogue, Papa Don't Preach, Music...
Tickets from Katterwall

10th & 11th April: 'Ain't No Motown High Enough' with Kassia Women's Choir @ HKAPA
Tickets from HK Ticketing from 10th March

ALSO

6th - 11th March: Anything Goes with HK Singers @HK City Hall