The Monthly talks to New Zealand musician and poet, Cadence Chung – Part 1 – Selecting music and poetry from a range of options

Are there any early memories of being interested in the arts?

As a child I was interested in stories and I was an avid reader. When I was given opportunities at school, some time and space to do what I wanted to do, I can remember just writing stories. One of my earliest memories of writing was when I was about 6 years old. I was so engrossed in my writing that I didn’t notice I had a nosebleed. It’s a strange, and quite random, recollection but I seem to remember there was blood all over the page I was writing on. I think that is a bit like my process now where, once I start writing, I’m oblivious to the rest of the world.

I don’t think I encountered poetry until I was a fair bit older, maybe around 11, so stories and writing were the main things which interested me.

How about your interest in music?

I started playing the piano when I was about 5. My mum arranged for me to do a lot of extra- curricular activities, sports, piano, ballet, and then I saw a performance of “The Phantom of the Opera”.

That introduced me to singing, and I started to sing the songs from that musical, just for fun really, but my mum heard me singing and she thought I sounded decent. After that, I entered a talent competition at my local school and I won it. My mum got me singing lessons when I was 9 years old and I’ve ended up at University studying singing.

It does sound like you were supported at home?

My parents approach was just to give me lots of options. They gave me the freedom to take something on and run with it, and it was me who decided to sing the songs from “The Phantom of the Opera”, and it was me who entered the talent contest. They didn’t need to push me, I was quite driven to go to lessons and rehearse and practise.

In my immediate family, I am one, if not the only, person who works, in the arts, in a creative field. I do get asked where that came from, but it was because I was given those options by my parents.

What about support at school?

My school didn’t have a classical music department so I was pretty much doing that on my own outside of school, but with poetry, it was different. I had a really great teacher who held a creative writing class at lunchtimes and he really encouraged me to look into poetry.

After that, I discovered the work of Chris Tse, who has just finished his term as New Zealand’s Poet Laureate, and later on I met him. He became sort of a mentor figure for me. That wasn’t directly related to school although I took up poetry in high school, and I did write my first chapbook when I was in high school.

What are you studying at university?

I study Classical Performance in Voice and English Literature. With English Literature, it is mainly study, research and analysis. There isn’t a creative writing component to those particular courses.

I’ve never really been trained as a writer or poet, although I’ve been to various workshops and things like that over the years.