Nine young talents awarded Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund scholarships (with photo)

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 (August 11) to award scholarships to nine young talents in music and dance.
      
     Scholarships were awarded to nine recipients this year, namely Miss Hedy Chan, Mr Ho Ho-fei, Mr Thomas Hung, Miss Elise Liu, Miss Irene Lo, Miss Christy Ma, Miss Tsang Wing-fai, Mr Wong Hei-yin and Mr Blues Zhang. All of the awardees or their representatives attended the awarding ceremony, where they shared their thoughts and thanked the Fund for its support, and committed themselves to making the best use of their opportunity to pursue further studies in Hong Kong or abroad. Some of the awardees gave short performances at the awarding ceremony.
      
     This year's scholarships, totalling $3.2 million, will support the awardees to pursue further education in the field of music or dance in Hong Kong or overseas, enabling them to contribute to the development of arts in Hong Kong upon the completion of their studies. This year, the Fund also supports awardees to study music or dance education in Hong Kong with an aim to nurture educators in the music or dance field.
      
     Attending the ceremony were the Board Chairman of the Fund, Mr Douglas So; Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Ms Kinnie Wong; Senior Charities Manager of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Ms Meiyee Wong; Board members of the Fund Mr Edmond Cheuk, Professor Gillian Choa, Mr Philip Kan, Ms Rosita Lee, Dr Qin Rong, Ms Iona Sham and Ms Selina Tsang; the Chairperson of the Music Audition Panel, Mr Warren Lee; the Chairperson of the Dance Audition Panel, Ms Tania Tang; Member of the Dance Audition Panel Professor Anna Chan; Pre-screening Panel members Professor Carmen Koon, Dr Lam Fung, Dr Elsa Lee, Mr Leung Kin-fung and Ms Rebecca Wong; and Executive Committee Vice-Chairperson (Dance) of the Fund's Awardees Association, Mr Allen Lam.
      
     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 Trust to meet an increasing demand for financial support. In 2014, the Trust approved an additional funding of more than $16 million to implement a six-year pilot project which included the launching of a local scholarship scheme for postgraduate studies in addition to the established non-local studies music and dance scholarship scheme, and the setting up of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Awardees Association. Upon the completion of the pilot project in 2020, the Trust provided a three-year funding of $5.68 million to enable the Fund to sustain the local scholarship scheme and support the operation of the Awardees Association. To date (including this year), the Fund has awarded 362 scholarships amounting to about $78 million.