CUHK students win music contest in Asia Pacific

CUHK students win joint first place at international music contest.

CUHK students were part of a winning team that took joint first place at the Quarantunes Student Music Competition organised by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU). The team received a prize of US$2,500 for their winning entry: Get Down.

Chaichon Wongkham and Yen Wei Kuang, both undergraduate students (studying Computer Science and Urban Studies, respectively) at CUHK, and their partners from National Taiwan University were tied for first place at the music competition. There were over 100 entries from APRU member universities and winners were selected by popular vote, chosen from the top entries with the highest responses on Facebook and the voting form.

The Quarantunes Student Music Competition offered students the opportunity to inspire each other and communities by making music. The pandemic has kept people apart, but music often brings people together with a sense of community and hope. Students were challenged to help others to see beyond current difficulties, come together in mutual support, and strengthen the determination and hope for the future as the world recovers from the many psychological, economic, and health impacts.

‘Our main challenge was we only had a week to complete our video which included writing the melody and lyrics, playing a saxophone solo and adding in the animation. We felt the animation really added to the main message of finding inner-comfort at a time of change while staying aware of what’s happening around us.

We were really happy to be chosen as finalists, but winning first place felt surreal as there were so many contestants with great performances. More importantly, many friends and family reached out to us, telling us they found strength through our song and video. This was a great opportunity to connect with people and to convey a positive message’, Yen Wei Kuang remarked.

Click here to watch the winning video: Get Down.