Joseph Koo

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Joseph Koo

Chinese name	顧嘉煇 (Traditional)
Chinese name	顾嘉辉 (Simplified)
Pinyin	gu4 jia1 hui1 (Mandarin)
Jyutping	gu3 gaa1 fai1 (Cantonese)
Birth name	Gu Gaa-fai (顧嘉煇)
Ancestry	Guangdong
Origin	Hong Kong
Born	1933 Hong Kong
Other name(s)	Moran (莫然) gu gaa-fai (顧家輝)
Occupation	Composer, Arranger
Genre(s)	Cantopop, Hong Kong musical tongue twister
Instrument(s)	Piano
Years active	1960s-1990s

Joseph Koo SBS was one of the most respected composers in Hong Kong. He used the pen name Moran (莫然) for Mandarin songs. He is the younger brother of famous Chinese singer Gu Mei (顧媚).

[edit] Career

Gu was sponsored by Run Run Shaw to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early 60s. Upon graduation he returned to Hong Kong and worked for both the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest movie studios. Later he joined TVB as their director of music, where from the late 1970's until immigrating to Canada in the 1990s, he collaborated with the lyricist Wong Jim on many memorable TV theme songs. Gu has composed over 1,200 songs in his career, many of his songs are now considered as classic Cantopop.

In 1962, he composed his first hit (Mandarin Chinese) song 夢 and later another hit song 郊道. In 1974, he wrote the first Cantonese TV theme song (啼笑姻緣) which was the actual first popular Cantopop song.

Mr Koo received Member of Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1982. In 1998, he received the Bronze Bauhinia Star from Hong Kong SAR. He also received other awards including Music Accomplishment Award (from Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Ltd.), Highest Honour Award (from RTHK Ten Best Chinese Music Program), Best Music Award and Best Lyric Award (from Asia Film Festival), Hong Kong Film Awards, Taiwan's Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards and many others.