Sharing of Scholarship Recipients - CHU Tsz Yan Candace

It is my honour to be a recipient of the HKBU Alumni Gratitude Scholarship (AGS). I am currently in the final year of my degree in music with my major instrument as violin. My concentration is in music education. I am currently working on my honours project about how music education can be beneficial for students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Furthermore, I was also in the Peer Mentor Program to assist new students to adapt to the university, as well as serving as a Mental Health First Aid Captain to support other students’ mental health in the university and my own violin students as well.

This scholarship would contribute to paying for the last bit of my student loan, and upgrading some parts of my instrument. I am truly thankful for all the scholarships I have been given for the past few years.

Unfortunately, I have been very unwell and couldn’t attend all lectures inside the music building. So, I have been learning mainly through digital methods, and have had extra meetings with professors and lecturers for extra help. Friends helped a lot during difficult times and “it took a village” to assist me. I am astonished by all the compassion I felt and am truly thankful for all. I believe that music is truly a natural connection for humans.

Despite all the adversities, I have been able to work on building my repertoire - Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Major, J.S. Bach’s Solo Violin Partita No. 2 and Ysaÿe’s Violin Sonata No. 4 are pieces among the most difficult rankings in violin repertoire. Ysaÿe composed his six violin sonatas explicitly for six legendary violinists of his era. I would never have imagined learning these pieces would even be possible without this degree and my violin teacher, having major milestones every year in my violin playing gives me more confidence as a student and a violin teacher.

For the future, I will be working to complete my performance exams for both Licentiate and Fellow of Trinity College London (LTCL & FTCL) as my repertoire for both exams is nearly completed.

My plan after graduation is to continuously teach music and hope to touch and heal people’s hearts and souls with music.