Music is the spiritual expression of what I am. Music is the artistic statement of social issues. But back to reality, it’s never encouraged in Asian societies to pursue a career in music, thus music is substantially reduced to “a form of luxury” that is solely a feast to our ears .
Adults face the brutal but inevitable reality check, swamped with unceasing mountains of work and financial constraints; while children and young adults struggle to envision a future career in music. Music, once used to bring happiness to our society, has increasingly become commercialised and deprived of its intrinsic social value when it comes to surviving our daily lives.
Kitty Yip, a social worker and the co-founder of Addoilmusic Hong Kong talks to Impact Circles about how her social enterprise for music is achieving utilitarian social milestones and developing young music talents. Addoilmusic was established 8 years ago by Kitty and her husband, Bryan Yueng, a reputable and talented local producer. The two of them hope to change people’s attitude towards music and encourage more people to engage in the career.
How did Addoilmusic start?
As a social worker, Kitty has witnessed first-hand, a plethora of social issues pervading Hong Kong society, and in particular, children and the elderly. She has dedicated her professional career in helping underprivileged children through numerous services.
“More support should be given to underprivileged children. Many ask me where they can learn music, but the reality is simply that they are unable to play music. The financial pressure faced by many local families makes it unrealistic for children to buy an instrument, let alone attend lessons regularly.”
According to Mercer’s Survey, Hong Kong ranks first as the world’s costliest city for living. Together with food, rental, transportation, healthcare and education costs, a small child’s dream to own an instrument seems a very remote goal. But this should not be the case!
Concurrently, as a music producer, Bryan is passionate about fostering music talents in young adults and children. Giving talks and holding music workshops for schools and institutions, Bryan was made aware of students’ concern about their lack of financial support or future stability in pursuit of a music career.
The heartbreaking fact is that Bryan has witnessed countless musicians - talented ones - give up music because of their lack of support and network. But again, this should not be the case!
Hoping to solve the two problems, Kitty and Bryan had co-founded Addoilmusic, aiming to achieve the social purpose of allowing everyone to enjoy music and to encourage young musicians to keep making music.
As with any other social enterprise, maintaining and sustaining the running costs of Addoilmusic is not an easy task. For Kitty and Bryan, they started Addoilmusic primarily with their own savings, accumulated from their years of success in their respective fields of social work and music. As a professional music producer himself, much of Addoilmusic’s production work and services take place at Bryan’s studio, where young talents are given the opportunity to record and produce professionally with his guidance.
Discontent with the low or lack of payment young musicians receive from their musical works, Kitty and Bryan strive to ensure that freelance income is provided for young musicians. They are, indeed, selfless in their realisation of social purposes.
Empowering society through music
As a social worker, Kitty has always been interested in how music could be used to help underprivileged children and our seniors, living at the elderly people’s homes - both struggling to find connection with the broader community in light of Covid-19 restrictions.
Kitty expresses that Covid-19 is drastically affecting elderly people’s mental health. Under the Government imposed restrictions, family members are not allowed to visit in ordinary circumstances and gatherings are strictly monitored. “You can imagine how little human interaction elderly people get every day. All their social activities have virtually come to an abrupt stop.”
Unaffected by Covid-19’s restrictions, Kitty, with the help of TEMI, the AI robot, has used music to help elderly people adapt practices of mindfulness and meditation in order to relieve stress and ultimately, find peace and calmness. Extremely positive results have been witnessed in the elderly people’s happiness rates and sleeping conditions.
As for helping underprivileged children, Inspired by Italy’s balcony jamming session between neighbours, Kitty realised a golden opportunity in inputting social effort. In sync with the technological advancements and adaptations used to circumvent Covid-19 predicaments, Kitty has initiated online music classes to engage and bring music learning experiences to underprivileged children. Developing music as a hobby immensely allows children to build a connection with the outside world and elevates their stay-home life to become much more enjoyable and colourful.
The value of music cannot and should not be defined narrowly. The possibilities achievable via music is unlimited and this is what Addoilmusic wishes to demonstrate.
Enterprises and schools have also enjoyed the Speed Jam Session in furthering their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and encouraging teamwork under a harmonious collaborative environment, which lets people without musical background learn to play a musical instrument in a song, while fitting each others' parts and enjoying the fun of jamming music together.
Let music belong to everyone
Recognising society’s pessimism and loss of direction due to Covid-19. Addoilmusic strives to bring positive impacts with their new and upcoming services.
The Lyric Co-Writing Workshop provides fundamental concepts and skills for young musicians. Equipped with the correct musical knowledge, musicians may navigate more smoothly in their music career and increase their market exposure.
The Pop Music Ensemble Band Training project aims to help schools and enterprises make a contemporary music band where positive thinking in children would be promoted. Kitty shares with Impact Circles a particularly uplifting story.
A few years ago, a young girl of ethnic minority joined Addoilmusic’s music session, but due to her unfamiliarity of Cantonese, she was unable to follow and sing along with her classmates. She faces further societal pressure due to her lack of competence in Cantonese and often feels discouraged. But through her constant efforts and support from teachers and classmates, she was able to overcome the language barrier and proudly perform the music piece. Music value put in the right place really creates a tremendous social impact and this is just one example of music’s social impact.
Addoilmusic’s ultimate goal is to universalise their maxim: Everyone can play music and music connects everyone.
Author
Karen Yee
Juggling between academic endeavours in the competitive field of law and music freelancing, I find myself to be curious and constantly searching for reasons and answers in this bustling city. As a striving individual, I believe diversity and inclusion is key to creating a harmonious community, and through my work, I hope to bring forward the voices otherwise unheard.
*For the Chinese version please check: 窮人家的孩子玩不起音樂？香港夫妻攜手創業，要讓音樂屬於每個人
執行編輯：任檥
核稿編輯：林欣蘋
