The Works：Artist Miwa Komatsu, ceramic artist Suzy Cheung & in the studio: Baritone Benjamin Appl an

The Shinto and Buddhist religions are Japan’s two oldest popular religious traditions. They’re accompanied by a rich mythology and folklore that includes a long list of gods, goddesses, spirits, divine creatures and other supernatural beings. Miwa Komatsu makes these beings the subject of her art.
Suzy Cheung is an art director for feature films, stage productions and television commercials. She is also an established ceramic artist. She’s been working with clay since 1990. Now on show at Hong Kong’s the Giant Year Gallery, a space dedicated to exhibiting and promoting ceramic art, is Cheung’s solo exhibition “Taxiing”.
The tradition of the German “Lied”, or song, dates back to the late 14th or early 15th century. The earliest lieder included settings of poetry to music, folk songs, and hymns but for many the form reached an exquisite peak during the Romantic period of the 19th century. Generally, lieder are written for piano and voice. Orchestral accompaniment came later. Baritone Benjamin Appl has been described by Gramophone Magazine as “the current front-runner in the new generation of Lieder singers”. He and pianist James Bailieu recently visited Hong Kong for a programme that included not only German lieder but also music by British, French and Norwegian composers.