Music might not play such a decisive role in Chui Wai-yin (Peco)’s life if a piano did not turn up at home when he was studying Secondary Two.
Peco comes from an eight-member family of boat dwellers, and he has been enamored with music since childhood under the influence of his elder brothers and sisters. However, learning the piano was beyond Peco’s reach under his family circumstances. Peco’s eldest sister then pinched and scraped, so that Peco can learn the piano, and she eventually saved up enough to buy a piano which Peco cannot take his hands off ever since. He attained his Grade 8 in piano in three years, thanks to his constant practice. However, his inferior mentality held him back, and as such, he did what his family told and continued his study in a commercial school after he finished Secondary Five.
It is toilsome to travel on a path one does not like. After dragging through half a year of study, Peco finally made up his mind to set foot on the road of music and march his way forward. He was then admitted to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) and majored in Piano.
The four years in HKAPA not only had widened the artistic horizon of Peco, but also had precipitated his encounter with Miss Nancy Loo, the mentor and pianist whom Peco benefited from for a lifetime. Miss Loo bridged music and life, and unfolded life through music, which was the goal that Peco devoted to achieving.
Before graduation, Peco saw a recruitment poster for composers by accident, and he has begun composing music ever since. “Songs of Years Gone By (歲月如歌)” and “Yearn for Tears (想哭)” by Eason Chan are some of his brainchildren. Unlike Miss Loo, Peco did not take the road of piano performance. Instead, he blazed his own way into a new sphere.
Yet, there is still a dream in Peco’s heart that has burgeoned since his childhood…
