On May 20, 2019, a normal Monday, it’s time to get off work and go home, but CDF employees didn’t do so. Instead, they waited for a very special music lesson to begin, taught by the first-chair double bass player Mr. Fu Yong-he of the National Symphony Orchestra. One double-bass, a huge instrument, was carried into the hallway of CDF and turned many heads. “We are very grateful for CDF, which has sponsored the International Double Bass Summer Camp for four consecutive years, and as a thank-you gesture, a five-hour master course is offered to CDF staff, so that they can touch the instrument and learn how to play the instrument.” The summer camp chief Zhong Yun believes that playing the music will make people understand and fall in love with music more than simply listening to music.
It’s not uncommon for enterprises to sponsor musical activity and take employees into music halls as listeners. What CDF does differently is that it takes the return gift of its sponsorship and turns it into a music lesson for its staff. Thirty employees signed up for the lesson despite none of them having any previous knowledge. However, instruction from the master has quickly enabled them to hold the bow and press the bow correctly. One KGI Bank employee surnamed You said, “This may very well be the only time in my life that I get to be taught by a master double bass player and I appreciate it.” Another KGI Bank staffer surnamed Zheng, who had some basic violin skills, amazingly learned to play Hanschen klein with the double bass immediately.
Lanyang International Double Bass Sumer Camp, sponsored by CDF, gets to invite world-class masters to Taiwan, so that music students can learn from them without having to leave Taiwan. The experience is a boon to their musical skills and expands their world view. Through word of mouth, this summer camp is known to be a great event in the world of international double bass players. Mr. Fu Yong-he made it an exception to teach students with zero background as a way of saying thank you to CDF’s support for years and set a goal for these students to hold a small recital one day. This goal not only poses a challenge the teacher’s pedagogical ability, but also tests CDF employees’ learning abilities.
Mr. Fu says it’s a unique experience for him personally and he used to think that financial-sector employees are a bunch of overworked people. He did not expect to see so many of them take delight in participating in the music classroom and he is now convinced that art is everybody’s cup of tea. Financial companies sponsoring artistic activities serves not only to make their employees more open to art but also provides an additional way of venting their pressure from the day-to-day grind.
