New sounds from an old instrument

WHEN someone mentions the pipa, most people either don't know what it is, or just think of it as a very old-fashioned Chinese wooden instrument shaped like a pear that plays funeral music, says The Pipa Quartet's leader, Samuel Wong, with a hint of frustration.

But that stigma is something that he and his quartet are on a mission to debunk, especially with their recent invention of the more versatile electro-acoustic pipa, which has already earned them the first-ever National Arts Coun…