almost famous: Michelle Blumenthal: Art Curator

Text: P.Ramakrishnan
Photography: David Wong

"There are only three times when a woman should be mentioned in the paper - when she's born, when she's getting married and when she dies," says Michelle Blumenthal. "I grew up in that old-world scenario with old fashioned virtues, so I'm not completely comfortable with this sell publicity."

Time, then, to talk about what she knows best: art. Blumenthal represents some of the finest mainland artists and acts as liaison between the art and business worlds, an example of which is visible at the Conrad hotel's Brasserie on the Eight restaurant, which is exhibiting the work of Sichuan artist Luo Fahui, one of her select few clients that include Yang Xhu, Sun Liang and Huang Yuanqing.

It may seem an odd choice to exhibit the esoteric artist's work in a highly commercial setting, but the reason is straightforward. "Hong Kong does not like to go to art galleries - that's for a very select group - but they do like to go out to eat," Blumenthal says. "For that reason, for the art to reach the public and high-profile guests who might see something they like and pick it up, I chose the Conrad. In Europe and America, there's a niche of trendy people, the art connoisseurs, where there's an acceptance of art in the social fabric and it is respected and nurtured. We have to strive for it a little more here."

Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and raised in Cape town, South Africa, Blumenthal has a background in public relations and marketing. She later worked as a commodities trader and for a shipping line, a job that brought her to Hong Kong 18 years ago.

"There was always an attraction to get away from what I had done before," she says. A growing interest in art and China led to a natural progression into the world of Chinese art and a change of career in the early 1990s. Through her company, A+A Phoenix, she arranges exhibitions and deals with the business interests of her mainland clients. "Many work to live, I choose to live and work this way," she says.

She often attends local art exhibitions and events but only acts as an agent for mainland artists. "Mainland artists are a little more sophisticated, there's a depth to their work that's brought on by a level of education that supersedes that of local artists, so their choices are a bit more sophisticated. They are more in tune with what's around them. Artists there have a different history, whereas Hong Kong has been ccomfortable for a long time. Disomfort is something that encourages growth."

Blumenthal says she builds trust with her artists and stays with them through their development. "I don't believe an art dealer or a gallery owner should dictate the work of an artist, which does happen often. Gallery owners wield a certain power the artists, once they pick one and like the focus of their work, their genre; the artist might be forced to stick to that, to what sells. But if he or she changes, that same framework might not surround him or her. Limiting that creativity where an artist has to replicate a formula that is stifling creativity."

She shuns high-profile launches, aware that many in Hong Kong would turn up more for the photo opportunity than the artistic talent on display. Instead, she prefers to balance commerce and art with smaller exhibition launches.

"There is one particular family in Hong Kong who collects contemporary Westerrn and old Chinese artifacts and one of the ladies is very knowledgeable. I asked her to attend an opening but she saw a preview of the work and did not like it so she didn't want to attend... That is a form of artistic integrity I fully appreciate.

"When you look at a painting and it does absolutely nothing for you inside, then it doesn't work. If it does not provoke, it's dead. it's just colours on paper, it's..."

Substitute wallpaper?

"Exactly."

Easy on the Ears: Singer Peter Cincotti, Zegna model and musician

Move over Norah Jones and Michael Buble, the world of polite jazz has a fresh face. P.Ramakrishnan meets the talented Mr Cincotti. Photo by Dickson Lee. Other images courtesy of Zegna and Peter Cincotti.




AS HIS FINGERS slide over the keys, Peter Cincotti furrows his brow in deep concentration, eyes firmly shut, biting his bottom lip. It's a musical duel and duet between the pianist and his drummer as they improvise on an original composition.


Off stage, Cincotti's an affable chap with an easy smile, and why wouldn't he be? Ermenegildo Zegna is keeping him in stitches. The Italian garment giant chose him to be one of its poster boys, and as far as Cincotti's concerned they've hit all the right notes with him.

"I wouldn't have had this opportunity to showcase my music to this variety of audience had it not been for Zegna," he says, in Zegna's store in Tsim Sha Tsui. "It's like I've been taken into this warm family and because of them, I've had the opportunity to play in Shanghai, in Hong Kong and Singapore [the next stop]. This is my first trip to China, my first time in Hong Kong, and I'm overwhelmed by the reaction of the audience."

It isn't just the invitation-only VIPs cramming the performances around Asia and Europe who have gladly picked up his albums. Most critics who've heard his second album, On the Moon - peppered with tunes and lyrics he wrote - have alluded to the wunderkind's prodigious talent.

He's 22-years old, has been performing since he was 12, opened for Ray Charles ("my hero and one of my all-time favourite performers"), studied with jazz masters David Finck and James Williams, starred on stage in the off-Broadway hit Our Sinatra and performed at the White House for President George W Bush. At 20, he was the youngest solo artist to reach the top spot on Billboard's traditional jazz chart. Last year, he appeared alongside Kevin Spacey in the Bobby Darin story Beyond the Sea.

Cincotti's roster of achievements would be music to the ears of any parent who shuttles their children into after-school piano lessons. "I was never pushed into playing the piano," he says. "I was three years old when I stared and it was an innate interest. I'm so glad my parents allowed me this creative freedom. if I practise everyday wherever I am, it's because I want to, not because I'm forced to."



In 2003, he released his self-titled debut, which led to an invitation to perform on Britain's Michael Parkinson Show. "Someone from Zegna was int eh audience and liked it and I was asked whether I'd like to represent their line of clothing for the next year. I said I'd be happy to. I love their clothes, and their visibility in New York is high, so it was a pleasure to do that. As far as I'm concerned, there are only pros, no cons, to this deal. I mean, I'm no model and I'm not out there to walk down the catwalk with the professionals, but the company has always chosen an atypical person to front their clothes. Adrien Brody was chosen right before he won the Oscar. Alberto Gilardino went on to win medals at the Olympics and do brilliantly at the European football championships. I'm here because of my music and I'm in great company."

Is a Grammy the next inevitable step? Already reviewers have him bracketed with Norah Jones and Michael Buble on the jazz-tinged side of popular music. Unlike the disposable pap that dominates the charts and the warbling of American Idol contestants, Cincotti can actually play an instrument and hist a note without synthetic modulation. He also composes and writes lyrics. He strikes a chord "with two hands and a voice steeped in emotion", as one reviewer put it.


"I know I don't sound like Norah Jones or Michael [Buble]. They're great artists in their own right. I don't worry about comparisons, nor do I get carried away with it. I'm just out there playing my music."

Cincotti had no idea what to expect from his first visit to Asia. "There's nothing like the dynamic of a live performance. I don't see myself as a jazz musician only. I like all kinds of music and am influenced by everything. I didn't get to see a lot of China and I'm so glad I get a day off in Hong Kong to get a feel for the city. All this can only influence my music."

The acting gig was a happy coincidence and took him into uncharted territory. The Spacey-directed biopic was panned, but the soundtrack garnered favourable reviews. Cincotti played Dick Behrke, a role similar to the one had in Spider-Man 2 as "Uncredited Piano Player in Planetarium".

"Working on the films gave me time to work on my latest album. Touring is different, you're always busy: working on the concerts, travelling to different locations. So, there's no time to do anything but perform. While working on Beyond the Sea, I was in one location for three months and, in between shots, I had a lot of free time, which is how I got to write some of the tracks from On the Moon. It was a great learning experience, too."

Where to next? "It's all about the music," he says. "It's not about recreating one genre again and again. My first record was classified in the jazz category, but it was primarily a trio record. I wanted to do jazz standards as well as songs by Blood, Sweat & Tears, which was next to Rainbow Connection and the theme from The Godfather and then I combined Nat King Cole with The Beatles. I'm interested in creating hybrids of music. The last thing I wan to do is sing a song the same way it's been done by hundreds of people. The artists I admire most are the ones that have constantly evolved. You take their first album and their last and it's completely different, and it's still great."



On the Moon is out now.

Plan ahead to enjoy your sunset years

Former top businessman Chung Po-yang says it is essential to find purpose in life after retirement, writes P Ramakrishnan.

A few years before his death at the age of 85 in 2001, noted British sociologist Peter Laslett, proposed a theory of how people should define their lives.

He posited that the first age is one of immaturity, education, dependence, as experienced by children. In time, they develop and progress to the second age, when the children mature to become adults who take up full-time jobs and parental responsibility.

After a lifetime of productive contribution to society, they reach the third age. There are no clear boundaries defining when it begins, but the term has generally been used to denote a period when people are in retirement, when their active career and parenting ends and they become free to pursue their personal fulfillment without the pressures imposed by work and family responsibilities.

It has been described as the age with the greatest freedom but ends, however, with the onset of illness and terminal decline, with a drifting into the fourth age before death.

In Hong Kong, much attention on ageing has rested on its effects on productivity which, combined with one of the world's lowest birth rates, is projected to put a squeeze on the size of its readily available workforce.

But there is also a dawning concern that some people are not ready to leave their jobs behind and enter retirement.

Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon last year, Chung Po-yang, chairman emeritus of delivery company DHL Asia Pacific, warned that Hong Kong's baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, might find themselves unprepared as they exited the city's workforce.

When asked whether he thought that Hong Kong's generation of baby boomers was ready for that third stage, he replied: "No, I don't think so.

"Not enough of them have gone through the experience. Baby boomers are going through the new phenomenon. The previous generation didn't have the option, they came down [to Hong Kong] after the war, they have a refugee mentality so they worked non-stop.

"They only think to make sure to continue accumulating wealth. But it gave them purpose to get out of bed."

Bereft of their jobs, he believed that many in this group would be unable to find a purpose in life, he said. "This is what happened to me and others too, I'm sure. I started working for my company when I was 29, I graduated when I was 27, so I've been working for 30-something years. I was really looking forward to retiring, but after 18 months of retirement, there was only so much good food I could eat, only so much good wine I could enjoy. I had to find a purpose.

"People who don't have a purpose will struggle through their last phase, go through a lot of pain and misery. That's why I encourage people to develop a hobby early on.

"People who read a lot are lucky, it's a great hobby that can only grow. The general definition for the golden age is to have a good life, live where you belong, with the people you love, doing the right thing, on purpose.

"I encourage young people to start early, to think about what they really want to do after retiring. As young as those in their 20s," he said.

With an ageing population who live well into their 80s, and even 90s, there are a good many decades left for those of active body and sound mind past the legal age of retirement.

"In the old days, people lived up to their 60s, but nowadays I can live up to the age of 90," Mr Chung said. "I'm 63 now. I've retired, but what do I do? That's the question I had to ask myself, which I'm sure many others have done or will do at the age of retirement."

Meanwhile, an increasing number of people are also looking to retire early, which means that their third age lasts longer.

A recent HSBC survey of 1,002 people in Hong Kong found that a greater proportion of younger respondents were seeking to retire early. It showed that only 26 per cent of women aged between 40 and 49 wanted to retire early, compared to 43 per cent in the 60- to 79-year-old bracket.

Meanwhile, 27 per cent of the men surveyed in the younger age bracket said they would choose early retirement, while 32 per cent in the older group said so.

Having reached this age, Mr Chung added that different people must prepare for the third age in their own ways.

"You have to work it out with your spouse on where you want to live too, it is most important that you come to an agreement. Women go through this phase at an earlier age - especially mothers who find themselves free when their children leave home, go off to university, get married and so on. But they deal with it well," he said.

"I encouraged my wife to paint, she sings, she does yoga, she arranges flowers, she has a small what-not shop in Prince's Building, so she's fully occupied. I just have to find money to pay for all the tuition," he chuckled.

Mr Chung, who over the course of his career has been awarded distinguished honours such as Hong Kong's Silver Bauhinia Star, an Order of the British Empire and being appointed a justice of peace, seems busier than ever.

He recalled how he first reflected upon his own stage in life after reading the book Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life by Richard Leider, the founder of a coaching and consulting company in the US, and David Shapiro, education director of a non-profit organisation in the US.

"I asked myself, what do I need to shed? Here I was sitting at the head of a huge company. I realised that all the things I wanted to do I had already done in the first 15 years of my working adult life. The last 10 years were not fun for me. Then I started looking for a successor. In the process, I also found out the things I liked to do, so I started taking lessons in painting and calligraphy."

Since then, he has studied a master's degree in fine art in Australia, and campaigned for longer and better-rounded university terms for students in Hong Kong.

He said he was still playing a vital role in his company and was an active member of society, teaching at the University of Hong Kong and having created the Centre for Asian Entrepreneurship & Business Values.

"Ah, but the difference is, I choose to keep myself busy," he said. "At this stage in life, I only do what I want to do. I wanted to learn more about art, so I did. I wanted to learn some music, I did, I wanted to share my years of knowledge and experience and I get an opportunity to do that through teaching and seminars. I like to pen my thoughts so I keep a journal. I've a column in a local paper every Monday, about the choices one has and what one should do in the third act of life and it's all been great fun for me," he said, showing that he has a busier diary than most heads of companies.

"The things I didn't enjoy, learning the piano for example, I dropped. At his stage, at this age, its about choices."

With no worries of mastering an instrument with a goal of performing to sold-out venues, or with the perennial pressure of a deadline greying one's hair, the liberty to do only what one enjoys seems idyllic.