Profile | ‘The biggest toy in the world’: how playing organ at Royal Albert Hall set Hong Kong’s Eric Chan on path to be organist
- Organist Eric Chan thought it was time to ‘give back to Hong Kong’ when he returned to his birthplace two years ago. He’s still waiting to play in the city
- He recalls discovering the pipe organ at school, and how playing at London’s Royal Albert Hall made him decide to study the instrument for a professional career
In psychology there is something called the “mere exposure effect”. It describes how people are wired to develop a liking for things that they are more exposed to, with or without their conscious recognition.
The flip side of it is apathy towards the unfamiliar.
This is the challenge for Hong Kong organist Eric Chan Chun-him. Even regular concertgoers in the city don’t often get to appreciate the sound of a pipe organ, because there are only three concert halls equipped with full-sized ones, and the ones in churches are small and do not produce the grand sounds, he says.
The 28-year-old, who graduated from the Royal College of Music in the UK with distinction and has performed in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall, among many other prestigious European venues, has not had the chance to give a recital in Hong Kong.
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Hong Kong organist Eric Chan shares the charm of the centuries-old keyboard instrument
Speaking in his living room in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, where a large electric organ dominates one corner, the 28-year-old tells the Post why he chose to return to the city of his birth in 2022.
