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PROJECT 1
ARTS x DISABILITY｜Returning Sound

an alternative paradigm of music performance about hope and resilience

Year: 1｜SDGs: 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 & 17

19:30

21 March (SUN) 2027​

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, HKJC Amphitheatre

1 Gloucester Rd, Wan Chai, Hong Kong

​Project Leads: Prof. Mette Hjort (LCS); Dr. Leung Chi Hin (CCA); Dr. Eric Feng (RCCAPV); in collaboration with Dr. Thomas Moors (Shout at Cancer Choir, UK), Phil Clemo (UK), Prof. Eugene Birman (HKBU), and Prof. Chow Yiu-fai (Hong Kong Metropolitan University)

 

Collaborations: HKBU; Shout at Cancer Choir (UK); Atos and Respeecher (Tech Companies in the synthetic voice industry); HK New Voice Club; centre fellow Eugene Birman, HKBU composer; centre fellow Chow Yiu-fai, lyricist, Hong Kong Metropolitan University; centre fellow Thomas Moors, NHS & Shout at Cancer Choir; centre fellow Phil Clemo, UK-based composer and filmmaker; Anandi Bhattacharya and Yoyo Sham, singers; EdUHK student musicians and choirs.

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Synopsis

Created with individuals who have lost their natural voice through cancer and surgery, Returning Sound celebrates the diverse journeys and collective resilience of survivors. An international collaboration between the celebrated UK-based charity helmed by Thomas Moors, Shout at Cancer, and the Hong Kong-based New Voice Club, accompanied by world music vocalist Anandi Bhattacharya and Cantopop star Yoyo Sham, with compositions by Eugene Birman and Michael Chi-hin Leung and songs by Chow Yiu-fai and Anandi Bhattacharya, this evening-length performance explores how sound can return in unexpected ways — through community, listening, memory, and collective strength. What emerges is not simply recovery, but transformation: voices once marked by silence become deeply moving expressions of human endurance.

The project emerged from an initiative by the Education University of Hong Kong’s Research Centre for Creative Arts and Public Value (RCCAPV), encompassing years of research on the power of the arts as a vehicle for transformative social change. Redefining conventional notions of beauty in vocal performance and rejecting laryngectomy’s social stigma, Returning Sound presents an alternative – and truly modern – paradigm of music performance, informed by a fascinating nexus of new medical and art-technologies.

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Objectives

Research and develop new Art Tech-based forms of grieving and memory work.

  1. Bring together two choirs - one from the UK and the other from Hong Kong - for a joint performance in Hong Kong SAR/ as part of the Hong Kong Art Festival in March 2027.

  2. Localise the performance through: i) collaboration with composers and practice-based researchers Eugene Birman (HKBU) and Leung Chi Hin (EdUHK), and with Cantopop lyricist and practice-based researcher Chow Yiu-fai (HKBU); ii) an Arts Tech- and AI Ethics-oriented exploration of hologram technology for memory work related to death; iii) collaboration with the HK laryngectomee community, student performers, HK experts in special needs education, and a leading doctor and administrator from the Hospital Authority.

  3. Support the transformation of lives affected by illness and disability through research-based artistic practice.

  4. Facilitate policy-oriented discussions on disability in the Hong Kong context.

  5. Offer young Hong Kongers a compelling example of human resilience and promote attitudes supportive of well-being and long-term thriving.

  6. Develop a partnership with a performance site.

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