The following is issued on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund:
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund held a ceremony today (July 26) to award scholarships, totalling $4.14 million, to 13 young talents to support them to pursue studies in music or dance in Hong Kong, the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium. In particular, the Fund was delighted to award a scholarship to the youngest awardee in the history of the Fund, Miss Hannah Tam, aged 13, who will pursue her diploma studies in violin in the US.
The 13 awardees are Mr Tony Chan, Mr Alvin Chan, Miss Cheryl Chan, Mr Chan Wai-lok, Mr Sirius Chau, Mr Zach Cheong, Mr James Koo, Miss Eugene Kwong, Mr Kelvin Ng, Mr Herman Pong, Mr Shing Chun-hay, Miss Hannah Tam and Miss Esther Wu. Eleven of them attended the scholarship award ceremony. They thanked the Fund for its support, shared their thoughts and committed themselves to making the best use of their opportunity to pursue further studies in Hong Kong or abroad.
Also attending the ceremony were the Board Chairman of the Fund, Dr Pang King-chee; the Head of Charities (Grant Making – Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture) of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Ms Rhoda Chan; the Principal Assistant Secretary for Home Affairs, Ms Sandy Cheung; Board Members of the Fund Mr Philip Kan, Dr Qin Rong and Ms Selina Tsang; and the Chairperson of the music audition panel, Professor Sharon Choa.
Dr Pang congratulated the awardees and praised their artistic talents. He also thanked the contributions of the two audition panel chairmen and members of the music and dance pre-screening and audition panels.
The Fund was set up in 1980 with a $10 million donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for the promotion and development of music and dance education and training in Hong Kong. In 1994, a further capital injection of $22 million was provided by the Jockey Club to meet increasing demand for financial support. In 2014, the Jockey Club approved additional funding support of over $16 million for the Fund to implement a six-year pilot project, which included the launching of a local postgraduate scholarship scheme in addition to the well-established non-local studies scholarship scheme, as well as the setting up of an awardees association for the scholarship recipients of the Fund. To date the Fund has awarded 327 scholarships amounting to about $64.9 million.