Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tai Yuan (Agenzia Fides) – The faithful of the Diocese of Tai Yuan, Shan Xi province, remember with great emotion, musician and Catholic composer, Antonio Geng Hui. According to the diocese's website, Prof. Geng, who was the choral artistic director of the cathedral in Tai Yuan, passed away on 20 February 2011 at the age of 70. He dedicated his life and his musical talent to the Church and sacred music. He was born into a Catholic family, and from an early age he served as an altar boy and was a member of the church choir, to serve the Church and live the faith. He laid the foundation stone for sacred music within the Catholic community in the province of Shan Xi. From 1985 he taught music in the sacred Regional Major Seminary of St John of Montecorvino in Shan Xi province, and began composing music for the Mass in Chinese. In 1995, thanks to his study of the Constitution on the Liturgy from the Second Vatican Council, he composed numerous pieces of sacred music that harmoniously blend traditional melodic Chinese with traditional sacred music. In 2006 he composed the Mass of the Children. Throughout these years of devotion to faith and to the Liturgy, he produced more than thirty pieces of popular sacred music that are used today during the Mass. He is recognised as mainland China's most famous Catholic composer of the last 30 years. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 22/02/2011)
