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 Fung Siu Ho was the name he was given, but Fred Fung is what he has become. Being raised in the rough Temple Street area of Hong Kong, provided the perfect visual and aural stimulation a child needs if he is to grow up to be a starving musician playing the Yang Qin(Hammer Dulcimer) in the US. Temple Street was loaded with gangs, street hookers, and local heroin dealers whose lives were all scored to the backing music of the Cantonese Opera and the putrid aroma of Cho To Fu(Stinky Bean Curd) cooking in the distance. Growing up in this rough neighborhood is the primary resource from which Fred continues to draw his musical inspiration to this day.
Fung Siu Ho’s future in the streets of Hong Kong was going nowhere fast. Failing out of the school system, was the result of his ever growing passion for playing music. He practiced his rhythm on his Mother’s flower pots and vases until his father saved up enough on a meager carpenter’s wages to get a marimba for his son. As the crude marimba started to sing uncharacteristically beautiful tones under Siu Ho’s tutilege, away went any remaining hope of the family that young Siu Ho would make it out of the gang infested streets through the school system. His Mother made a drastic decision for the sake of her talented but wayward son. She spent the family savings in order to take 15 year old Siu Ho on a vacation to see relatives in Richmond, Ca, only there was no round-trip ticket for her son. Fred Fung was born.
Unable to go to public school, Fred became the only kid with a Chibonics accent at an East Bay Catholic High School. Fred knew some English from classes back home, but this wasn’t the Queen’s English filtered through teachers’ thick Cantonese accents in the Hong Kong classroom. This was a whole new language. Culture shock prompted Fred to immerse himself in his music, but the lack of social activity also provided additional time in his schedule for improved studiousness. As Fred’s grades improved, his social standing took an unexpected turn when he joined the Catholic School Band playing trap set. Good grades meant Fred would have the opportunity to study the music he loved in college, something that seemed worlds away from his upbringing in Hong Kong.
The prestigious Berklee School of Music World Music Program in Boston would be where Fred would hone his skills. Due to a tragical inheritance of a Yang Qin from a close relative’s suicide, Fred was inspired to add another instrument to express himself. The Education at the Berklee School of Music got fred the technical proficiency he needed to play professionally, but he needed real world experience with like minded musicians to take his music to the next level. The San Francisco Bay area was a center for World Music activity in the mid 90’s, so Fred moved back to Richmond to get his professional music career underway.
Fred founded the Jumping Buddha Ensemble in 1996, with the purpose of enhancing Chinese Traditional and Folk Music with the World Music influences of Fred’s Berklee education and the Bay Area’s World Music Scene’s musicians. This combination was a hit with the Chinese Folk Music followers and the World Beat Fans as well. Memorable moments include: radio play on KPFA in Berkeley and the weekly West Coast Live radio series, An East Coast Tour including a stop at the Knitting Factory in NYC and the Bethlehem Music Festival, The Splendors of China Music Festival at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco and events at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, Cowell Theatre, SF, and several of the open air festivals around the Bay Area like Making the Waves, and the Fourth of July Festival.
From 1999 to 2002, Fred started branching out in other musical projects in and started a 3 year run as a regular in the Chinese Folk Music Band at San Francisco’s Chinatown’s Night Market. Fred also started getting involved in Chinese Folk Music education at local master classes at SF State University, the Young Audiences for the Bay Area Program for local grade school students, and the Clarion Music’s Cultural Awareness Through Music Program. Fred’s insatiable desire to grow as a musician didn’t fit with Jumping Buddha’s approach of repeating a static repetoire for paying gigs, so Fred and JBE parted ways at the end of 2002.
Now Fred is doing studio projects for clients such as Adobe Software and Loopology.com’s downloadable beat libraries, and recording his first solo CD due out by the end of the year. These projects have given Fred the inspiration to reach more people using the World Wide Web, so he is currently working with web designers on his fredfung.com musical website and is taking his Chinese Folk Chops to a place that typical Folk bands don’t reach, the Groove.
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