PASSION
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Michelle Chow (1986) is one of the founding members of the
Friends of the Harp Limited (FOTH), a tax-exempt charity in
Hong Kong. She is currently the director of FOTH. “There should
not be any barrier in learning music”, says Michelle. “Music is for
everyone, no matter you are rich or poor.”
A lawyer specialising in trust and charity law and a seasoned advisor
in philanthropy, Michelle teamed up with another alumna Vivian Li
(1982) and a few volunteers to establish FOTH in 2007. “FOTH
had a humble start. We started as a simple shared-office operation.
After we had gained more support and recognition from the public,
we relocated to our current office in Wanchai, making it more
accessible to students and volunteers,” Michelle explains. “Harp is
a beautiful instrument and yet it is falsely labelled as unreachable
or just for the privileged only. Our vision is to promote the harp, to
nurture passion in harp and to use music to connect people in our
society.”
“FOTH started off with three harps only. With generous donation
from all the members in FOTH and myself, we now have over 20
harps,” says Michelle. FOTH provides scholarships for students
who cannot afford rental and tuition fees for harp courses. FOTH
also offers harp rental service to commercial sectors, from which
the income will be used to support student scholarships and harp
outreach schemes. “We offer free tuition to the underprivileged
students and support their practice needs. Beneficiaries include
students from families who are recipients of Comprehensive Social
Security Assistance Scheme, and students referred to us by the
Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups or Hong Kong Sheng
Kung Hui Welfare Council. Currently there are about 40 students
benefited from our scheme and we hope to support more students
with the help from the harp community and our sponsors. We
also have a harp outreach programme. For instance, our harpists
visited 26 outlets of SAHK in the past 12 months and we will
continue with this programme in the coming year. Charitable
donations are the key sources of funding for us, and we are
Harp and Music for All – An Interview
with Michelle Chow
Tony Chau (1993)
1. Friends of the Harp hosted a “harp tasting” booth at St John’s Cathedral’s Michaelmas Fair in October 2015.
2. The first ever outdoor marathon harp performance in January 2014, Hong Kong Cultural Centre.
3. Dr York Chow (second from left) and Michelle in Hong Kong Harp Festival 2014.
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