Prolific Macau composer Doming Lam (林樂培), who had served as the music director of the Macao Chamber Orchestra – now called Macao Orchestra (OM), died on Wednesday. He was 96.
Lam’s family announced his death in a short statement yesterday.
The statement said that Lam had committed himself to modernising Chinese music, adding that “Search for roots in tradition, find ways in the avant-garde” was his famous motto. He was also one of the few Chinese music composers who appeared in the classical music encyclopaedia “Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians”.
Lam was born in Macau in 1926 into a big family of 21 children. After moving to Hong Kong, Lam, also a violinist, helped found the Sino-British Orchestra, which was later renamed the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
During his career, he composed classics such as Autumn Execution and The Insect World, the statement said, adding that the latter was performed in 2002 by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra at the Goldener Saal in Vienna.
According to the statement, after he studied film music at the University of Southern California, Lam returned to Hong Kong and worked at a producer for cultural and entertainment programmes on Rediffusion Television (that went on to become ATV) and Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK.
The statement said that various Hong Kong and Macau music groups, including Macau choir Coro Perosi and the Macau Youth Symphony Orchestra, had held a series of a concerts to celebrate Lam’s 90th birthday in 2016.
Lam served as the music director of the Macao Chamber Orchestra between 1983 to 1989, and he was awarded by the Cultural Affairs Bureau the Cultural Merit Medal in 1998.
According to Wikipedia, at 1999 Culture Day, Lam was named one of the five Asian composing masters by the music circle in Tokyo. Lam is the first Macau-born composer to be included in the prestigious Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Lam was named Honorary Member of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) at its World Music Days in Hong Kong in 2007.
In his final years, Lam enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren but still devoted himself to composing.
One of his last compositions, Calm, was chamber music for a Chinese ensemble, the statement said, adding that its clean musical lines conveyed a sense of peace and being at ease, which aptly reflect Lam’s ethos. In his own words:
“Nothing should bother one’s mind. One is not affected by gain or loss. When faced with the external world, one always stays rational, grounded, and merciful. This is the natural state of mind.”
This undated photo shows composer Doming Lam posing. – Photo provided by Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (HKCO)
