The Blazing Mirage

Rachel Cheung

Young Steinway Artist Rachel Cheung has been described as “a poet, but also a dramatist” and praised for “the most sophisticated and compelling music-making” by the Dallas Morning News. In 2017 she was a finalist and winner of the audience award at the 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. She also won fifth prize at the 2009 Leeds International Piano Competition, aged 17, and in 2010 was a semifinalist at the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Cheung’s Festival appearances include the Ninth Musical Olympus International Festival in St Petersburg, Russia; the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, Poland; Virtuosos of the Planet 2006 in Kiev, Ukraine; the Transeuropéennes festival in Rouen, France; the Miami International Piano Festival, Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival, and the International Piano Festival, Sun Valley in the USA; and Musicus Fest 2017, when it was held for the first time in Finland.

She has also performed at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Steinway Hall in London, the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, and the Philharmonie de Paris.

An active chamber musician, Cheung has worked with world-renowned musicians including Vladimir Mendelssohn, Dong-Suk Kang, Jan-Erik Gustafasson, Ning Feng, Trey Lee, Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Jens Peter Maintz, Virpi Räisänen, Jian Wang, Michel Lethiec, Bruno Canino, the Brentano String Quartet and Quatuor Leonis.

Orchestras with which she has performed include the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn; the Hong Kong Sinfonietta; the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, with Edo de Waart; the Hallé Orchestra, with Sir Mark Elder; the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, with Vladimir Ashkenazy; the New York Concert Artists Symphony Orchestra, with Eduard Zilberkant; the London Chamber Orchestra, with Christopher Warren-Green; and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, with Leonard Slatkin and Nicholas McGegan.

She recently directed and performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris at the Paris Play-Direct Academy, led by Stephen Kovacevich. She was also awarded the prix du jury at the closing concert.

Trey Lee

Hailed as a “miracle” by Gramophone, Trey Lee enthralls audiences with a virtuosity that combines intellectual sophistication with a profound depth of emotions. His latest album, Seasons Interrupted, recorded with the English Chamber Orchestra for Signum Records, met with critical acclaim with BBC Music Magazine describing his performance “an exquisite delivery of the melody” with “an intoxicating intimacy”. The late Lorin Maazel praised him as “a marvelous protagonist…a superb cellist” after conducting Trey with the Philharmonia Orchestra. His concerto debut at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage won him a standing ovation, with New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini declaring him “the excellent cellist…with enveloping richness and lyrical sensitivity”.

Lee’s recent highlights include touring with Camerata Salzburg, appearing at the season opening concert of English Chamber Orchestra, and solo engagements at Vienna’s Golden Hall Musikverein, London’s Cadogan Hall, Paris’ Salle Gaveau, Milan’s Duomo, Warsaw’s La Folle Journée, and Beijing’s National Centre for Performing Arts. Lee has worked with notable musicians and groups that include conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuri Bashmet, Mikko Franck, Hannu Lintu, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Vassily Sinaisky, Dima Slobodeniouk, BBC Philharmonic, Philharmonic Orchestra Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Moscow Soloists, and chamber orchestras of London, Munich and Stuttgart.

Seeking to increase the expressive possibilities of the cello, Lee has re-arranged works including Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, which he debuted with the Trondheim Soloists. Wang Liping’s The Dream of the Red Chamber Capriccio, co-arranged by Lee, was premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Lee has given world premieres of two pieces dedicated to him: Bright Sheng’s The Blazing Mirage and contemporary Finnish composer Kirmo Lintinen’s Cello Concerto.

Lee is a laureate of major international competitions, including First Prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition. Numerous media outlets have featured Lee, including a recital recorded for Deutsche Welle during the Covid lockdown. As an ambassador of UNICEF Hong Kong, he shared the stage with Yoko Ono and Hugh Jackman at the UN General Assembly Hall to promote children’s rights in launching The IMAGINE Project.

Photo: Keith Hiro

Tapiola Sinfonietta

"…No matter how high your expectations are, these players will always outperform them. There is no such a thing as disappointment with these artists…" – Bachtrack

Since being founded in 1987, the Tapiola Sinfonietta has achieved world fame particularly for its mastery of the Viennese Classical repertoire. The orchestra has a unique structure – the artistic planning is in the hands of a team of three consisting of the General Manager and two musicians, in the spirit of modern, shared leadership, guided by joy, artistry and commitment. The orchestra has three Artists-in-Association at a time, each adding his or her own special edge to the artistic policy. In this spirit, the orchestra has collaborated with top conductors and artists from Finland and abroad, namely Hannu Lintu, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Masaaki Suzuki, Isabelle Faust, Stefan Jackiw, Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen.

The continuous development of this alliance of 41 orchestra players has also been heightened by co-productions with top artists in the fields of drama, dance, circus, jazz and popular music. Members of the orchestra also appear as soloists and chamber musicians and play in Baroque, jazz and folk ensembles.

The Tapiola Sinfonietta has a discography of more than 60 titles on the BIS, Ondine and Naxos labels, many of which have received critical acclaim. Its recording of Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto with violinist Pekka Kuusisto in 2014 was chosen by French music magazine Classica as the Choc de l'Année (Record of the Year); its Anna Liisa (2015) opera recording in 2015 with director Jan Söderblom was Editor's Choice in Grammophone and HelsinginSanomat (the main newspaper in Finland).

The orchestra acts as an ambassador of Finnish culture on its tours to Asia and Central Europe.

Colleen Lee

Hong Kong pianist Colleen Lee achieved international recognition after winning 6th Prize at the 15th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. She has performed extensively around the world in solo recitals, and with orchestras including the Warsaw, China, Israel and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras.

Lee has appeared in major festivals including the Duszniki Festival in Poland, Musicus Fest in Hong Kong, Pianoforte Fest Meissen in Germany, and the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York. She made her debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle in September 2019.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Lee frequently appears in chamber music concerts and has also collaborated with world-famous instrumentalists, including violinists Ning Feng and Kang Dong-suk, cellists Trey Lee, Daniel Müller-Schott, Alexander Kniazev and the Shanghai Quartet.

Lee has received a Certificate of Commendation under the former Secretary for Home Affairs’ Commendation Scheme, a Commendation for Community Service by the Hong Kong Government, and a Young Artist award by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. She is currently the Honorary Artist-in-Residence of the Education University of Hong Kong and a member of the piano faculty at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and at the Hong Kong Baptist University.

Tapiola Sinfonietta String Quartet

"…No matter how high your expectations are, these players will always outperform them. There is no such a thing as disappointment with these artists…" – Bachtrack

Since being founded in 1987, the Tapiola Sinfonietta has achieved world fame particularly for its mastery of the Viennese Classical repertoire. The orchestra has a unique structure – the artistic planning is in the hands of a team of three consisting of the General Manager and two musicians, in the spirit of modern, shared leadership, guided by joy, artistry and commitment. The orchestra has three Artists-in-Association at a time, each adding his or her own special edge to the artistic policy. In this spirit, the orchestra has collaborated with top conductors and artists from Finland and abroad, namely Hannu Lintu, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Masaaki Suzuki, Isabelle Faust, Stefan Jackiw, Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen.

The continuous development of this alliance of 41 orchestra players has also been heightened by co-productions with top artists in the fields of drama, dance, circus, jazz and popular music. Members of the orchestra also appear as soloists and chamber musicians and play in Baroque, jazz and folk ensembles.

The Tapiola Sinfonietta has a discography of more than 60 titles on the BIS, Ondine and Naxos labels, many of which have received critical acclaim. Its recording of Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto with violinist Pekka Kuusisto in 2014 was chosen by French music magazine Classica as the Choc de l'Année (Record of the Year); its Anna Liisa (2015) opera recording in 2015 with director Jan Söderblom was Editor's Choice in Grammophone and Helsingin Sanomat (the main newspaper in Finland).

The orchestra acts as an ambassador of Finnish culture on its tours to Asia and Central Europe.

Chan Wan-in

Chan Wan-in was born in Hong Kong and started learning the pipa at the age of 7. She is pursuing her Bachelor of Music degree at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under Yuan Yue and Zhang Ying. She is also minoring in zheng under Chin King. She was the winner of The Second Chinese Musical Instruments Competition organised by the National Philharmonic Society of Guangdong province. She also received the HSBC HKAPA Mainland China Study Programme Scholarships to advance her study under Ren Hong. She is also a member of the Academy Chinese Orchestra.

Eva Wong Hiu-ching

Eva Wong Hiu-ching was born in Hong Kong and started learning music at the age of 6. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree study in 2016, majoring in erhu and banhu with the support from the HKSAR Government Scholarships Fund. She is now a visiting student majoring in gaohu at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She has received various prizes at competitions in Hong Kong and China. At the age of 16, Wong won the first prizes of erhu, banhu and gaohu in all categories at the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival. She is also a member of the Academy Chinese Orchestra.

Yue Kin-long

Yue Kin-long was born in Hong Kong and started learning the sheng at the age of 9 under Loo Sze-wang. He is now pursuing his Advanced Diploma at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under Cheng Tak-wai. He is also minoring in Chinese Percussion under Yim Hok-man. He is the recipient of the HKSAR Government Scholarships Fund and HSBC HKAPA Mainland China Study Programme Scholarships. He has participated in the masterclass with sheng master Weng Zhenfa. He is also a member of the Academy Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Youth Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Taoist Orchestra, Hong Kong YWCA Chinese Orchestra and John Chen Ensemble.

Zeng Baoxin

Zeng Baoxin was born in Guanzhou, China and started learning the dizi at the age of 9 under famous dizi soloist Gan Shao-hua and Zhang Fan. She is now pursuing her Advanced Diploma at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with full scholarships under Sun Yongzhi, Dizi Principal of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Zeng was the champion of the Shunde Ming Ri Zhi Xing Competition and the first runner-up of the Chinese Music Instrument Competition in Foshan, Guangdong province in China. Zeng is the recipient of The Society of APA Non-Local Scholarships. She is also a member of the Academy Chinese Orchestra.

Jeff Leung

Jeff Leung graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University, majoring in Music Composition under Dr. Christopher Coleman. He has composed a wide variety of music including traditional orchestral works, contemporary works and pop music. He was the music director and composer of several local musicals such as Footloose, and his film scoring work Last Thing I Remember participated in the 2012 Cannes Short Film Corner.

Jeff is currently studying orchestral conducting with Francis Kan, the conductor of Macao Orchestra. He also studies conducting in Hong Kong Baptist University with Dr. John Winzenburg. He is the assistant conductor and guest viola principal of the Union Philharmonic Orchestra at the University of Hong Kong.

Denise Mei Yan Hofmann

Denise Mei Yan Hofmann started playing guitar at 10, but only decided to pursue music seriously after graduating from Middlebury College in 2011.

She received her M.M. from Mannes College of Music in New York and her music has been played at the National Opera Center, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, The Spectrum and Mannes College of Music, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, HellHOT Music Festival in Hong Kong and the International Dance Festival in Bangkok .

Hofmann arranged the jazz standard Georgia On My Mind for the Johnny Rodgers Band, which was performed by the Moscow Symphony string section in June 2013 and she also wrote the incidental music for the New York production of Harriman-Baines& at the Theatre for the New City. In 2014 she was commissioned by the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild to compose a trio for 'SOUND-IMAGination: Hong Kong Postcards', which premiered in December of the same year at the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

In 2016, she was awarded residency at the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts and received the Mannes College Dean's Award.

Janne Nisonen

Janne Nisonen is one of Finland’s most versatile musicians, performing as a conductor, leader, violin soloist and chamber musician.

He began his violin studies at the Central Ostrobothnia Conservatory and went on to study at the Edsberg Chamber Music Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He studied orchestra conducting with Hannu Lintu and Atso Almila at the Sibelius Academy.

In addition to the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Nisonen has conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. He took up the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Pori City Orchestra in the autumn of 2016.

Nisonen has been the first leader of the Tapiola Sinfonietta since 2007 and has appeared as guest leader with several European orchestras. He has made numerous recordings for radio and has performed at many music festivals.

Nisonen plays a Nicolo Gagliano violin from 1751, on loan from the Lähi Tapiola insurance company.

Pekka Kuusisto

Described by The Telegraph as a musician "who surely has the most personal sound of any classical violinist now alive", Pekka Kuusisto is internationally renowned for his fresh approach to the repertoire. An advocate of new music, Kuusisto regularly works with composers such as Nico Muhly and Thomas Adès and gave the world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s Violin Concerto.

Kuusisto is widely recognised for his flair in directing ensembles from the violin. From January 2016 he has become Artistic Director of ACO Collective – a string ensemble which connects the musicians of the Australian Chamber Orchestra with Australia’s most talented young professional musicians to deliver innovative projects across the country – and following a longstanding creative collaboration with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, he takes on the role of Artistic Partner with the ensemble from 2016/17.

Kuusisto has collaborated with the Scottish Chamber, City of Birmingham Symphony and Toronto Symphony orchestras and the Bamberger Symphoniker. As soloist, he has appeared in concerts with the Seattle and BBC Scottish symphony orchestras, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig and Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia. A keen chamber musician, his regular partners include Anne Sofie von Otter, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Nicolas Altstaedt, Alexander Lonquich and Olli Mustonen.

In 2013, Kuusisto was the recipient of the Nordic Council Music Prize, with judges describing him as "a violinist in the absolute elite".

Cherry Tsang

Pianist Cherry Tsang appeared on stage as a soloist and chamber musician in Asia, Europe, and the United States and debuted at the legendary Carnegie Hall in 2009. Under the batons of Neil Varon, Alan Cumberland, Christoph Campestrini, and other renowned conductors, she performed with local and overseas orchestras, including The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Ars Nova Orchestra, and the Eastman Symphony Orchestra.

Recently Tsang has toured with her chamber groups in Spain, Australia, and numerous cities in China. She also remains very active with her violin piano duo, Duo Estrellita this past year in doing several Live stream Concerts. She often appeared in the Hong Kong Sinfonietta Chamber Music series, Music del Cuore Series. She was invited to Wooster Music Festival and Sanibel Music Festival in the United States, and at prestigious venues including the Kneisel Hall, New York University, Symphony Space, and the Miller Theatre at Columbia University.

A versatile musician, Tsang has shared the stage with world-famous musicians including Giuliano Sommerhalder, Esteban Batallán Cons, Florent Héau, Michel Arrignon, and Piotr Milewski. Her collaborations with trumpeter James Thompson led to the recording “Arias from Bach’s cantatas” released by the International Trumpet Guild in 2014 and later was presented as a featured solo artist in the “Our Music Talent” series by the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department in 2015.

Tsang received her doctorate from the Eastman School of Music in the United States. She is a piano faculty member at Hong Kong Baptist University and coaches piano chamber music and collaborative piano in the HKAPA for the graduate degree programs.

Vladimir Mendelssohn

The descendant of a prominent musical family, Vladimir Mendelssohn has appeared throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, composer and arranger. He has made numerous recordings for a variety of labels and is constantly in great demand at countless international festivals, performing with the world’s finest musicians.

Mendelssohn's engagements have taken him to the US, almost every country in Europe, as well as to Russia, Israel, Tunisia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and South America. He has performed in renowned concert halls such as New York's Carnegie Hall, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Salle Gaveau, Berliner Philharmonie, Munich's Herculessaal, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, Moscow Conservatory, Zurich’s Tonhalle, and Philharmonie Bucharest. A prolific composer, he has produced works for solo instruments, mixed choir, chamber music, symphony and chamber orchestra. He has also composed music for ballet, stage and screen.

Since 2005, Mendelssohn has assumed the role of Artistic Director at the celebrated Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland. Mendelssohn was a professor of chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire until 2015. He has also been teaching at The Hague, Essen and Bologna and gives master classes the world over.

Mendelssohn has been a regular guest artist of Musicus Society since 2013. His performances at Musicus Fest and Musicus Heritage concerts were met with enthusiastic reception.

Paavali Jumppanen

Paavali Jumppanen is an internationally renowned pianist, a versatile performer equally as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, and a recitalist. His vast repertoire spans piano literature from Bach to the avant-garde. He has worked with numerous contemporary composers and premiered many solo piano and chamber works. His collaborations with esteemed composers including Pierre Boulez, William Duckworth, and Henri Dutilleux as well as composers of his native Finland – among them Perttu Haapanen and Lauri Kilpiö – have opened for him a broad perspective into the dynamic nature of new music.

Jumppanen has toured extensively in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia, appearing with the Melbourne Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra as well as at numerous festivals including Finland's Kuhmo Chamber Music festival and the La Roqued’Anthéron Festival in France.

Jumppanen attended at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and later worked with Krystian Zimerman at the Basel Music Academy in Switzerland where he also studied organ, fortepiano, and clavichord. Russian-born pianist Konstantin Bogino has remained an important mentor throughout his studies and career.

In recent years Jumppanen has dedicated much of his time to performing complete cycles of Beethoven and Mozart piano sonatas, as well as playing all the Beethoven piano concertos and chamber sonatas. Of one Beethoven recital, The Boston Globe reported how “the sheer, overflowing energy of his musicianship held one’s attention throughout this impressive performance and the result was a bracing and enjoyable reminder of how path-breaking Beethoven's music was".

Jumppanen has an expanding discography which includes "the best recorded disc of Boulez's piano music so far" (The Guardian, about the three sonatas recording made upon the composer's request) and the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas, released by Ondine between 2014 and 2016. Jumppanen spent the 2011/12 season as a visiting scholar in Harvard University's Music Department studying musicology and theory to deepen his immersion in Viennese 18th century music.

Louise Kwong

Louise Kwong has won prizes at numerous singing competitions. She won the Second, Audience and Best Soprano prizes at the 18th International Singing Competition "Ferruccio Tagliavini" in Austria; First Prizes at the Singing Competition Saliced'oro and the Singing Competition Città di Iseo in Italy; and Second Prize at the 7th International Singing Competition Bell’arte in Belgium.

Kwong graduated from the Dutch National Opera Academy, the Conservatory of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and the Royal College of Music, London. Her operatic roles include Cio-cio-san in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen, Liù in Puccini's Turandot, Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Anna in Donizetti's Anna Bolena, La Contessa in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte.

Locally, Kwong's achievements were recognized by the Hong Kong SAR Government with the Young Artist Award in Music (2014) and in the Commendatory Scheme of the Secretary for Home Affairs (2015). She has been invited to perform in several music festivals, including the Hong Kong Arts Festival where she took the roles of Xiao Hong in the opera Heart of Coral, Tong-bi Kang in the opera Datong, and the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam where she performed the role of Fiordiligi in the opera Cosi fan tutte.

Born Lau

Praised for his “immaculately refined” playing (The Philadelphia Inquirer), violist Born Lau has appeared internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and principal violist. A prizewinner of the Primrose International Viola Competition and the Astral National Auditions, he enjoys a career spanning three continents. Career highlights include performances as a soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Trondheim Soloists, performance at the Henry A. Kissinger Prize ceremony in Berlin, and a concert with the esteemed Tokyo String Quartet in Los Angeles. Lau has served as Principal Violist of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, as well as Guest Principal Violist of San Diego Symphony, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lau received his education from the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Colburn Conservatory of Music. He has studied with viola teachers including Roberto Díaz, Paul Coletti and Richard Fleischman. Chamber music studies with members of the Emerson, Guarneri and Tokyo String Quartets.

As an educator, Lau has given viola master classes throughout the world, including the Royal Academy of Music, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Soochow University, the New World School of the Arts, Washington Conservatory of Music, and the Hong Kong Baptist University. He is currently the Distinguished Professor of Viola at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Rocco Filippini

Rocco Filippini began his musical training at an early age. In 1964, after his musical studies with Pierre Fournier and Professor Franz Walter at the Geneva Conservatory, he won the International Competition in Geneva, which immediately opened the way to his career.

In 1968 Filippini founded the Trio di Milano (with Bruno Canino and Cesare Ferraresi, then succeeded by Mariana Sirbu, leader of I Musici) and more recently the Quartetto Accardo. He also regularly plays with pianist Michele Campanella. In the last few years, he has devoted himself to conducting.

Filippini has performed in hundreds of concerts around the world, in the most prestigious concert halls (La Scala, Albert Hall, Festival Hall, Théatre des Champs Élysées, the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Munich Herkules Saal, Concertgebouw, Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House) as well as at famous festivals such as Lucerne, Spoleto, Marlboro (where he was invited many times by pianist Rudolf Serkin), Edinburgh, Stresa, Pesaro, Salzburg (where he performed with Maurizio Pollini), Ravenna, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Helsinki. He also dedicates a great deal of time to recording. Major contemporary composers have dedicated their works to him, including Luciano Berio, Franco Donatoni and Salvatore Sciarrino.

Filippini is also a dedicated pedagogue – an elected member of the prominent Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Professor Emeritus at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi di Milano, member of the Prague Mozart Academy directed by Sandor Vegh, he has instituted courses of the Accademia Stauffer at Cremona with Salvatore Accardo, Bruno Giuranna and Franco Petracchi, and has held a great number of master classes at Hindemith Foundation in Blonay, Banff University, Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, Aix-en-Provence, Sermoneta, Città di Castello, among others.

In 1997, he has been awarded by the Foundation of The Swiss Italian Bank for his contributions made to the development of the cultural relations between Switzerland and Italy.

His violoncello is the “Gore Booth” of Antonio Stradivari (1710).

Hippocrates Cheng

Hippocrates Cheng is currently an award-winning master music composition student at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a full scholarship from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund. His works have been performed around the world in Vienna, Mexico, Australia and elsewhere.

In 2016, his Fragment for a mixed ensemble of 20 musicians was selected by Ablaze Records for their new SINFONIA Series CD album. And his Gather and Scatter for Chinese orchestra was selected to be performed by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in their Music from the Heart 2016 concert. His Clamor for saxophone octet won third prize in the New Generation 2016 contest organized by the Hong Kong Composers' Guild and RTHK.

Recently, Cheng's Fission for flute, clarinet and piano was selected by the Ensemble Chromoson and Austrian Hong Kong Composers Connection and was performed in the Hong Kong Vienna Music Festival in Vienna. His evocative piece Time and Earth was selected and broadcast by MUSLAB.

Cheng is also a pianist, violist and overtone singer.

Wei Ningyi

Fourth Prize winner of the Canetti International Violin Competition in Turkey and First Prize winner of the 1st Schoenfeld International String Competition (Chamber Music Division), Wei Ningyi is a young musician of exceptional depth and quality.

Wei began studying the violin at the age of five. He was admitted to the Affiliated Middle School of Xinghai Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Xu Yue in 2003. Wei entered The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts on scholarship in 2009 to study with Prof. Michael Ma and completed his Master’s degree with distinction in 2017. As a soloist, Ningyi has appeared with the Academy Symphony Orchestra and the Shenzhen Arts School Philharmonic Orchestra.

Wei has participated in master classes with Maxim Vengerov, Cho-Liang Lin, He Wei, Qian Zhou, Hu Kun, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Xu Wei-Ling, Dong-Suk Kang, Tong Wei-Dong. As a member of the Gloucester String Quartet, he has performed in the master classes held by the Shanghai, Szymanowski, Penderecki, Chilingirian, Endellion, Miró and Miami String Quartets.

Wei was also invited by Musicus Society to perform in the Musicus Heritage Community Concerts, Chamber Music Gala and Children’s Concert in Musicus Fest 2016 and 2017, sharing the stage with renowned international musicians including Trey Lee, Pekka Kuusisto and Vladimir Mendelssohn.

Wei is currently on faculty at the Junior Music Department of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

David Ma

David Ma is currently a student at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where his teachers include Megan Sterling, Olivier Nowak and Tim Wilson. Ma has won many prizes in local competitions and abroad, including the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival and the British Flute Society’s School Performer Competition. He has performed in master classes with Sir James Galway, Thomas Robertello, Kate Lawson, Walter Auer and Henrik Wiese, among others.

As an orchestral flautist, Ma participated in the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s “Share the Stage” project conducted by Lorin Maazel and Christoph Eschenbach, as well as Musicus Society’s Ensemble Training program with the London Chamber Orchestra conducted by Christopher Warren-Green. As a soloist, he appeared in the Musicus Heritage Community Concert Series, including “Move to the Music”, “A Home in the Urban Jungle” concerts and Musicus Fest 2016 and 2017.

Mak Ka-yin

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Mak Ka-yin graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree (Hon.) and a Master's degree from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, majoring in Erhu and Gaohu performance in 2014 and 2016 respectively. His teachers included Zhang Chongxue and Professor Yu Qiwei. His excellent performances have brought him a number of scholarship awards including those offered by Exxon Mobile Ltd., the Hong Kong Bank Foundation (Hong Kong – Mainland Exchange Scholarship), as well as the Musicus Society Trey Lee Scholarship for his distinct performances from 2014 and 2016.

Mak is now a full-time musician in the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and is one of the core members of the local strings ensemble, Goin’ Music. He has appeared in concerts in Australia, Finland, China and Taiwan, and has performed with numerous orchestras and ensembles such as the Hong Kong Youth Chinese Orchestra, YWCA Chinese Orchestra and Wang Kwong Chinese Orchestra.

Nancy Loo

Hong Kong

Nancy Loo is one of Hong Kong's most versatile artists, as pianist, radio program host, actress and writer. She was a recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award. She currently teaches piano at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is often invited to host music talks and master classes, and to serve as a juror for piano competitions.

Loo attended the Juilliard School on scholarship, where she studied with Adele Marcus. After graduating with a Master's degree, she studied with Vlado Perlemuter in Paris and Guido Agosti in Italy. She was First Prize winner at the Fourth Rina Sala Gallo International Competition in Monza, and has won awards in many other international competitions, including the Marguerite Long International Competition in Paris.

As a pianist, Loo has given solo recitals and performed with orchestras in England, Europe, North America and Asia. Locally, she has appeared in the Hong Kong Arts Festival Orchestra and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. A keen promoter of contemporary music, she has participated in the annual Musicarama and the ISCM World Music Days Festival. She has also played the piano part for the soundtracks of several Hong Kong films and television series. Her recordings include a piano solo album of Christian music, Ambush and Moonlight on Spring River with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and piano works by local composers.

Dennis Wu

Dennis Wu is an active music writer, composer and a specialist on a wide range of projects and productions. He is a radio producer, having produced and hosted numerous radio programes on RTHK Radio 4, and a frequent speaker in pre-concert talks, meet-the-artist panels and music criticism seminars. His writings are widely published in newspapers and magazines, including monthly articles on Hifi Review. Recently he has curated a concert of songs on Yu Kwang-chung's poems and performed in a series of concerts as the narrator.

Kathy Lam

As an arts administrator, Kathy Lam has worked for IMG Artists (New York), American Composer's Orchestra, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and currently with Radio 4, Radio Television Hong Kong. Apart from hosting her weekday programs, Jazz and More ... and Arts News, she is an active voice-over talent and has narrated for Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra's Simply Classics series for two consecutive seasons. She is also a freelance music critic for newspapers and magazines. She has published two books, one on classical music and one teaching secondary school students writing music critiques.

Christopher Warren-Green

British conductor Christopher Warren-Green is Music Director of London Chamber Orchestra in the UK. He is Conductor Laureate and Artistic Adviser to the Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina following a twelve year tenure as Music Director, and he is Chair of the Foundation for Young Musicians. Over the last 50 years he has conducted eminent orchestras around the world, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit, Houston, St Louis, Toronto, Milwaukee, Seattle and Vancouver symphony orchestras, and the National Symphony Orchestra Washington D.C.

In the UK, he has worked with Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National orchestras. In Europe, he has conducted Orchestre National de Belgique, Zürcher Kammerorchester, RTÉ Symphony Orchestra and Iceland Symphony Orchestra in Europe, and Hong Kong Philharmonic, NHK, Yomiuri Nippon, Singapore, Sapporo and KBS symphony orchestras in East Asia.

In addition to his international commitments, he has been invited to conduct at the wedding services of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2005, TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey in 2011 and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2018. He conducted London Chamber Orchestra on the occasion of HM The Queen’s 80th birthday and Philharmonia Orchestra for Her Majesty’s 90th birthday concert at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as HRH The Prince of Wales’ 60th birthday concert in Buckingham Palace.

As a conductor he has recorded extensively for Sony, Philips, Virgin EMI, Chandos, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and records with London Chamber Orchestra for Signum Classics.

A violinist by training, Warren-Green began his career at the age of 19 as concertmaster of BBC National Orchestra of Wales, followed by Philharmonia Orchestra under Ricardo Muti aged 25 and later concertmaster of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. As a soloist he has recorded Mozart, Vivaldi and Mendelssohn concerti, and appeared as soloist extensively in Europe most notably with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the Fields in the Berlin Philharmonie.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, having been a professor there for eight years, and has appeared and presented numerous times on television and radio, most notably for the BBC Proms.

As a conductor he has recorded extensively for Sony, Philips, Virgin EMI, Chandos, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and records with London Chamber Orchestra for Signum Classics.

A violinist by training, Warren-Green began his career at the age of 19 as concertmaster of BBC National Orchestra of Wales, followed by Philharmonia Orchestra under Ricardo Muti aged 25 and later concertmaster of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. As a soloist he has recorded Mozart, Vivaldi and Mendelssohn concerti, and appeared as soloist extensively in Europe most notably with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the Fields in the Berlin Philharmonie.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, having been a professor there for eight years, and has appeared and presented numerous times on television and radio, most notably for the BBC Proms.

Photo by Jeff Cravotta

London Chamber Orchestra

Founded by Anthony Bernard in 1921, the London Chamber Orchestra was the UK’s first professional chamber orchestra and has recently celebrated its centenary. Throughout its 100 years, LCO has enjoyed many successes and become one of the UK’s most compelling and inclusive musical organisations.

Committed to supporting new musical voices and championing new compositions, LCO has commissioned and performed UK premieres by Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Poulenc, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, James MacMillan, Freya Waley-Cohen, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Gabriel Prokofiev, and Nicholas Korth.

Alongside its performance schedule, LCO runs Music Junction which brings children and young people together from different social and economic backgrounds, and provides them with opportunities to develop artistic and social skills through shared music making experiences.

Photo is provided by Upstart Productions

Bruno Canino

Pianist Bruno Canino has had numerous works dedicated to him by major composers of the last 50 years such as Berio, Anzaghi, Donatoni, Bussotti, Kagel, Rihm, Xenakis and Liebermann. He has toured four continents as a soloist and chamber musician, and has collaborated with many of the world's prominent string players, including Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell, Salvatore Accardo, Viktoria Mullova and Uto Ughi. In addition, he has performed in a piano duo with Antonio Ballista since 1953 and is part of the Trio di Milano with violinist Saschko Gawriloff and cellist Siegfried Palm.

Canino's extensive discography includes Bach's Goldberg Variations, Mendelssohn's compositions for cello and piano (with Lynn Harrell), works by Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky (with Viktoria Mullova for a disc that was awarded the Edison Prize), the complete works of Alfredo Casella, Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (with Andras Schiff and the Amadinda Ensemble) and the first compact disc of the complete piano works by Debussy.

Canino has taught at the conservatories of Milan and Berne. From 1999 to 2002, he was the Music Director of the Biennale di Venezia. He has been presenting a triennial course for advanced piano studies in Seveso, Italy, and has given master classes throughout Europe. As versatile musician, Canino was the author of Vademecum for a Chamber Pianist (Passigli Editions, 1997) and also composes for piano and ensemble.

Dong-Suk Kang

Internationally revered violinist Dong-Suk Kang is a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, as well as the Artistic Director of MusicAlp Festival in France and Seoul Spring Festival in Korea.

A protégé of Ivan Galamian, Kang was a top prizewinner in a number of international competitions, including the Montreal, the Carl Flesch in London and the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels.

Kang has appeared with many great orchestras of the world including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington and Montreal in America, and Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, BBC Orchestras, Halle, Birmingham, Scottish National, Munich, Stuttgart, Gewandhaus, French and Belgian National Orchestras, Gothenburg, Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Polish National and Rotterdam in Europe. He has collaborated with the most celebrated conductors, including Charles Dutoit, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Mazur, Paavo Järvi, Yehudi Menuhin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Myung-whun Chung, Mariss Jansons, Sir Roger Norrington and Alexander Lazarev amongst others. As a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Kang has performed in New York and toured throughout the US.

Kang has performed at major music centers and festivals throughout the world, including the London Proms. His concerts were frequently televised and broadcast on the radio in many countries. His strong interest in chamber music led to appearances at major chamber music festivals including those in Spoleto, Santa Fe, Kuhmo, Korsholm, Seattle, Vancouver, Newport and Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Kang has served on the jury for the major international competitions, such as Queen Elisabeth, Indianapolis, Montreal, Wieniawski, Long-Thibaud, Menuhin, Michael Hill, Sendai, Qingdao Tibor Varga and others.

A sought-after recording artist, Kang’s recordings have won critical acclaim and awards, such as the Grand Prix du disque from both the Académie Charles Cros and the Nouvelle Académie du disque. His Walton Concerto CD was chosen as CD of the month by Gramophone magazine and nominated for Gramophone Award 2000.

Kang is also decorated as Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres, a distinction received from French Government.

Gian Paolo Peloso

Gian Paolo Peloso is regarded as one of the finest Italian violinists. He has studied with some of the greatest pedagogues of the 20th century, including the legendary Ruggiero Ricci, Ivry Gitlis, Igor Ozim, Gérard Poulet and Viktor Pikaisen. The venerated Ivry Gitlis says of him: "… I respect and love (Peloso): a true musician, of the highest quality as a soloist and chamber music performer, and a top class violin teacher, honor of our profession and its future."

Peloso made his debut at age ten under the direction of composer Luciano Berio. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals and chamber music concerts extensively throughout Europe, most notably at Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, Martha Argerich Festival in Switzerland, Music Concert Society of Milano, House of Music in Moscow, Sun Festival in Singapore, Archipel Festival in Geneva and Festival of Cannes in France. Peloso has also appeared in Musicus Fest and the Musicus Heritage Community Concert Series.

He has toured extensively with the Camerata de Lausanne. He has also performed chamber music with Sofia Gubaidulina, Mark Lubotsky, Pierre Amoyal and Bruno Canino. He was appointed Violin Professor at the Conservatory of Music (University) of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and has given master classes in Italy and Hong Kong.

Peloso is a Sony Classical artist and has recorded sonatas by Respighi and Busoni with pianist Bruno Canino in New York. Peloso He has also recorded sonatas by Saint-Saëns and Poulenc for the National Suisse Radio.

Peloso is presently on faculty at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and plays a prestigious Landolfi violin of 1755.

Mary Wu

Hailed as "one of the most gifted pianists of her generation" for her "musical variety, profundity and sensitivity" by Ravel's long time pupil Vlado Perlemuter, Mary Wu is also praised by the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin as having “a captivating poetical quality to her playing".

Starting from a young age, Mary Wu has performed extensively including performances with Lord Menuhin in Europe, cellist Colin Carr, the Gramophone Chamber Music Award winner Maggini Quartet, and in festivals including Hong Kong Arts Festival, Le French May, Singapore Arts Festival, International Contemporary Music Festival, Ibiza Festival in Spain, and The Intimacy of Creativity festival in which she performed with two-time Grammy award-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.

Wu has collaborated with the Calgary Symphony in Canada, former Beijing Central Philharmonic (now China National Symphony Orchestra), Polish Gdansk Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Guangzhou Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, among others.

Wu is a graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Royal College of Music (RCM) and the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she completed her doctoral degree under Gilbert Kalish.

A 2003 "Top Ten Outstanding Young Person in Hong Kong", Wu has won the Chappell Gold Medal of RCM, first prize at the London Royal Overseas League Competition and the Mozart Bicentenary Competition of Asia, and the 2010 Hong Kong Arts Development Council Best Artist (Music) award.

Wu has recorded several CD recordings under BMG, ASV, Dutton, Paradisum (Contemporary Chinese Piano Works) and Universal (Ravel Piano Works).

Priya Mitchell

Priya Mitchell is described by The Strad as one of the foremost violinists of her generation. She was chosen as the British representative in the ECHO (European Concert Halls Organisation) "Rising Star" concert series and gave recitals in Paris (Cité de la Musique), Vienna (Konzerthaus), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts), London (Wigmore Hall) and New York (Carnegie Hall), leading to performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (with Yuri Temirkanov), the BBC Symphony Orchestra (with Richard Hickox), the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (with Sir Andrew Davis), the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, among others. She has collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Belgian Radio Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Polish National Radio Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, and the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin.

As a sought-after chamber musician, Mitchell has performed extensively at many international festivals such as those held at Risør, Lockenhaus, Heimbach, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Stavanger, Kuhmo and Lugano.

In 2000 she started her own festival, the Oxford Chamber Music Festival, in her hometown and of which she is the Artistic Director.The Independent described this festival as putting Oxford "on the map of the classical music world" and The Daily Telegraph "a musical miracle".

Mitchell plays a Balestrieri violin made in the 1760s, generously on loan to her by a private family trust.

Elena Cheah

A multi-talented musician, Elena Cheah has toured Europe, North America and Asia, and performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras such as the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orquesta Sinfonica de Burgos and Sinfonietta92 Berlin. She has appeared in many respected European and American chamber music festivals, and her partners in chamber music have included members of the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. She has also been the Principal Cellist of Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Christian Thielemann and Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim. As a Guest Principal Cellist, Cheah has collaborated with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich and Bach Collegium Stuttgart.

Cheah has been professor of cello at the Academy of Orchestral Studies of Barenboim-Said Foundation in Seville, Spain, the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Stuttgart, and the University of Music in Freiburg. She was the editor of Daniel Barenboim's acclaimed book Everything is Connected: The Power of Music, and wrote her own book An Orchestra Beyond Borders: Voices of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (published by Verso in 2009).

Michel Lethiec

Michel Lethiec has established himself as one of the world’s finest clarinetists today, with an international career that spans four continents. A master of the entire clarinet repertoire, Lethiec has performed as a soloist with the most prominent orchestras, as a recitalist and chamber musician.

Since his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1980, Lethiec has collaborated with some of the most celebrated musicians and ensembles, such as Arto Noras, Leonidas Kavakos, Mistlav Rostropovitch, Gary Hoffmann, Hagai Shaham, Yuri Bashmet, Yehudi Menuhin, Ralf Gothoni, Mikhail Rudy, Pierre Amoyal, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, the Moscow Virtuosi, the Talich, Prazak and Lindsay Quartets. Among the many orchestras he has appeared with are Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, English and Toulouse chamber orchestras, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Salzburg Mozarteum and Philharmonique de Radio France. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, the US, Middle East and Far East.

Lethiec is the Artistic Director of Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, and has an extensive discography of solo and chamber performances that includes two Grands Prix du Disque. He has recorded under the labels of Naxos, Lyrinx, R.C.A., Bis and Sonophyl with critical acclaim.

As a devoted pedagogue, Lethiec teaches at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and Nice Conservatoire. He frequently gives master classes in other renowned music schools.

Roydon Tse

Hailed as a composer "glittering with professionalism" (Vancouver Sun), and writing music "mature beyond his years" (Christos Hatzis), Roydon Tse is an award-winning Chinese Canadian composer who writes from the heart, and strives to inspire audiences from all backgrounds with his music, from the first time listener to the most sophisticated classical connoisseur.

Tse has won prizes at several competitions such as the 2015 Washington International Composition Competition, 2014 CMC Prairies Emerging Composers’ Prize, NewMusic @ ECU Orchestral Composition Competition, 2013 Trio Anima Mundi International Composers’ Competition and the Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers.

Born in Hong Kong, Roydon studied piano and composition in England and Canada at an early age. He holds composition degrees from the University of British Columbia (BMus) and the University of Toronto (MMus), and is currently completing his Doctorate at the latter institution.

Willis Wong

Willis Wong graduated with a Bachelor’s of Music degree from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he studied composition with Poly Ng. Wong took part in the multimedia concerts, Spirit of Birds and Claustrophobic Spaces, and directed his own multimedia concert, From the Inside Out. In 2015, Wong was commissioned by Musicus Society and compose Sampling Tea, inspired by the Former Marine Police Headquarters. He was also invited to the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival 2016 in Finland for a second performance. Wong is also keen on arrangements and composing original soundtracks. His music for the multi award-winning animation film, Chill and Shivering, received a nominated for Best Original Score in Feel The Real International Film Festival in 2016. Wong was also featured in the 2017 Musicus Fest, as the arranger for the Children’s Concert.

Wong is now studying Master of Music in Composition and Production at Australian institute of Music, under the tutelage of Eric Chapus. Wong has recently taken part in the Love the world concert as Music Director.

Jia Nan

Born in Beijing, Jia Nan started learning piano at the age of four; three years later, she took up the cello taking lessons with Professor Song Tao of the Central Conservatory of Music. She entered the Primary School affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music on a full scholarship when she was ten and later attended the school’s secondary section. She entered Bard College in New York on a full scholarship at the age of 16 to study with the renowned cellist Peter Wiley, and later studied under Professor Ray Wang at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2009. While studying at the Academy, Jia joined the Gloucester String Quartet and took part in numerous music festivals and also masterclasses given by such famous ensembles as the Shanghai Quartet, Endellion Quartet, Juilliard String Quartet, Szymanowski Quartet, Penderecki String Quartet and Chilingirian Quartet.

After winning her first award in 1999, she went on to receive many more for her solo and ensemble playing, including First Prize and Special Prize for Best Performance of Chinese Compositions at the 4th Cello Competition (Youth Division) at the Central Conservatory of Music, Third Prize at the 3rd International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, as well as Second Prize in Cello solo and First Prize in the Chamber Division at the Schoenfeld International String Competition.

Jia has been a frequent participant at summer music academies, including the MISQA International String Quartet Festival in Montreal, and masterclasses outside Hong Kong, including those given by renowned cellists such as Gary Hoffman, Yo-yo Ma, Natalia Shakhovskaya and Jian Wang.

Jia earned her Bachelor’s degree in 2015 and Master’s degree in 2017 from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She has also been actively involved in chamber music, orchestral music and teaching, as well as continuing to perform internationally. Jia is currently a faculty member at the Junior Music School at the HKAPA and the International Christian Quality Music Secondary and Primary School. She has performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Orchestra, the Hong Kong String Orchestra, the Hong Kong Orchestra and the Bauhinia Trio.

Jia has given many recitals in Hong Kong and Mainland China. In addition to performing at the Musicus Fest in 2015, she also appeared at the Heritage Community Concert organized by the Musicus Society in 2017.

Gloucester String Quartet

Winner of the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld 1st International String Competition Chamber Music Division, the Gloucester String Quartet is one of the rising quartets in Asia. Their performances have been heard in venues such as the Royal Academy of Music in London, the West Dean College, the Wells Cathedral, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Hong Kong City Hall.

A graduate quartet in residence of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Gloucester String Quartet is currently under the tutelage of Ivan Chan (former leader of the Miami String Quartet), Prof. Michael Ma and Prof. Ray Wang. They have participated in masterclasses held by the Shanghai, Szymanowski, Penderecki, Chilingirian, Endellion, Miró, Debussy and Miami String Quartets.

Recent highlights include performances with members of the Miami String Quartet in the Helmut Sohmen and Peter Thompson International Artists Series in 2013; a concert with pianist Ido Akov from Jerusalem presented by the Consulate General of Israel in Hong Kong in 2014; Musicus Heritage Community Concert with pianist Colleen Lee at PMQ in 2015; a China tour to Chengdu and Shantou and a concert with guitarist Craig Ogden in Hong Kong in 2016.

The Gloucester String Quartet receives scholarship from VM Strings. Zheng's 1706 Matteo Goffriller violin, Wei's 1839 Giuseppe Baldantoni violin and Choi’s 1770 Lorenzo Storioni viola are on loan from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and Xu's 1836 Simon Andrew Forster of London cello is on loan from the Society of the Academy for Performing Arts (SAPA).

Belle Shiu

Hong Kong-born Belle Shiu is a pipa virtuoso and a member of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. She completed her Master’s in music at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing in 2016, under Zhang Ying.

Shiu started learning pipa under Li Ping, and was trained by the famous virtuosi Yang Jing and Ren Hong. She also learned nanyin pipa under Ong Chay-tin and zheng under Luo Jing.

Notable musicians Shiu has performed with include Russian violist and conductor Yuri Bashmet, cellist Trey Lee, violist Vladimir Mendelssohn, and violinist Gian Paolo Peloso. As a regular guest of the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra she has performed at the Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi (2017 and 2019), the Russian Culture Festival in Beijing and Tianjin (2019), the International Music Festival of Yuri Bashmet in Russia (2018), the Prosecco Festival in Italy, and December Nights in Russia (both in 2016). In 2015 she was invited to be the first player of Chinese music to perform at the renowned Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland.

In 2021, Shiu and Wu Chun-hei, suona assistant principal of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, collaborated on the orchestra’s concert The Neon City and in 2019, she appeared as pipa soloist with the orchestra at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival in Greece. In 2018, she performed with the local experimental pop band SoundTube at the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco, the pipa solo in Spring Comes to Baiyun Mountain with the HKCO under the baton of Xiao Chao and the pipa solo in Tan Dun’s Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra with the Philharmonia APA at the 3rd Altamira Hong Kong International Guitar Symposium.

She has won the Gold Award in the Ensemble Category at the 2nd Chinese Instrumental Music Competition of Guangdong, Bronze in the International Group at the Hong Kong International Youth Pipa Competition and a Merit Award in the Young Professional Group at the Hong Kong International Youth Music Competition.

Ms. Sophie Lin

Sophie Lin has over twenty years of combined experience in international arts management and education covering the North American and Greater China regions. She has worked with some of the most prestigious arts organizations in the world; namely, The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Concert Artists Guild and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in the capacity of artist management, orchestra operation, concert production, as well as personnel. In Asia, she has played an instrumental role in the fundraising for the Asian Youth Orchestra across China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In the field of education, she was the Development Director of American Field Services, an international cultural exchange organization targeted at underprivileged students of Hong Kong.

Among the numerous major international projects, Sophie Lin has consulted for the Concert Series of University of Chicago. Most recently, she collaborated with the Curtis Institute of Music in managing its educational tour to Hong Kong.

Ms Lin received her masters in arts management from Carnegie Mellon University, and her bachelor in piano performance with a minor in violin performance from Duquene University, both on full scholarships.

Prof. Tseng Sun-man, JP

Prof. Tseng Sun-man has held a number of senior arts management positions in Hong Kong, including Executive Director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society, Secretary-General of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Head of Radio Four, Radio Television Hong Kong, and Assistant General Manager (Marketing and Development) of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

Since 2002, Prof. Tseng has concentrated on consultancy and arts management training, teaching and designing training programes in Hong Kong and Mainland China. He served as Chair of the Arts Administration Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music from 2005 to 2008. He has taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong SPACE, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, Shantou University, Xing Hai Conservatory of Music and the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing. Prof Tseng is now developing a series of arts management enhancement programes catered specially for in-service managers for the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Prof. Tseng was a founding member of the Hong Kong Arts Administrators Association and served as its Chairman from 1991 to 94. He is currently Chairman of the Committee on Venue Partnership of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, a member of the Advisory Committee on Arts Development of the Hong Kong Government, an Arts Advisor (Arts Management) of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and a board member of the Hong Kong Children's Choir.

His book, Principles of Arts Management (in Chinese), has sold more than 5000 copies.

Wong Chi-chung

Wong Chi-chung studied Chinese Huqin Performance with Tong Leung-tak and Western Orchestral Conducting and with Yip Wing-sie. He received the Advanced Diploma and Professional Diploma from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Wong has performed in many places such as Italy, France, Australia, USA and Poland. As an active performer in Hong Kong, he has participated in many local performances and recordings including the “Local Composers’ Works Concert” and the “International Contemporary Music Festival - Musicarama”. He was also invited by the Radio Television Hong Kong to have solo recitals.

Wong joined the Chinese Music Virtuosi in 1997 and participated in numerous concerts presented by the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Le French May, Musicus Fest and Hong Kong Composers’ Guild etc. He is now a part-time lecturer at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Ning Feng

Prize-winning violinist Ning Feng's technical brilliance and poetic, expressive interpretations of the great masterworks of the violin repertoire have made him one of the most exciting of the younger generation.

A recipient of prizes at the Hanover International, Queen Elisabeth and Yehudi Menuhin International violin competitions, Ning Feng was First Prize winner of the 2006 International Paganini Competition. As a soloist, he has performed with renowned orchestras such asBudapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer, Russian State Symphony under Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under Muhai Tang. In recital, he has played in the Schleswig-Holstein festival and in concert halls such as Sydney Opera House, Vienna Konzerthaus and Berlin Konzerthaus.

Ning Feng records for Channel Classics in the Netherlands. His latest recording is of the Bruch Scottish Fantasy and Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Previously for the label, he recorded two albums of solo works – one with the solo sonatas by Bartók, Prokofiev and Hindemith, and the first album with works by Paganini, Kreisler, Berio, Schnittke and others which was highly praised by Audiophile Auditio, "You will be blown away by the artistry of this album, and blown away in great sound to boot…"

Ning plays a 1721 Stradivari violin, known as the "MacMillan", on private loan, kindly arranged by Premiere Performances of Hong Kong.

Andrew Ling

Andrew Ling is currently the principal violist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and has given critically acclaimed solo performances with the orchestra.

Ling began studying the violin at the age of six under the instruction of the late Professor Lin Yaoji from Beijing's Central Music Conservatory. As a child, he toured the world as a violin soloist with the Yip's Children’s Choir of Hong Kong. He has also collaborated with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and the China Film Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, he has given recitals in Hong Kong, the North America and Europe .

Ling is an active chamber musician, having performed with Trey Lee, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin and with such notable groups as the Shanghai String Quartet. He has also been invited to Chamber Residency of the prestigious Banff Centre in Canada as a guest artist.

A dedicated music educator, Ling is currently an adjunct faculty member of the Hong Kong Baptist University and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Jan-Erik Gustafsson

Winner of the 1986 Eurovision Young Musicians competition and 1994 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Gustafsson has performed as a soloist across the world with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, and Radio Symphonies of Berlin, Sweden, Finland, Danmark and Holland. He has performed in prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, as well as appearing regularly at major festivals throughout the Scandinavia.

Gustafsson is the Artistic Director of Loviisa Sibelius Festival in Finland. His recordings under Ondine were nominated Record of the Year in 1994 and 2000 by the IFPI, a Finnish recording label and producer association.

Chinese Music Virtuosi

The Chinese Music Virtuosi was founded by six Chinese instrumentalists, Loo Sze Wang (Sheng), Chu Siu Wai (Dizi/Xiao), Wong Chi Chung (Huqin), Pan Ya Sze (Yangqin), Chiu Tan Ching (Zheng) and Lam Tsan Tong (Pipa). The ensemble aims to promote Chinese instrumental music and also popularize Chinese instruments by expanding into the field of contemporary music.

Since its establishment, Chinese Music Virtuosi has presented numerous concerts, workshops both local and overseas to critical acclaim for its diverse repertoire and remarkable techniques. Its recent performances include the collaboration with Fulcrum point New Music Project in Chicago (2009) and a performance in Artistree series organized by The Hong Kong Sinfonietta (2011).

During the 2011/2012 season, the Chinese Music Virtuosi has been appointed as The Ensemble-in-Residence by the The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Yuri Bashmet

Hailed as the "Paganini of the Viola," the legendary Yuri Bashmet occupies a special place in the history of music, turning the viola for the very first time into a recognized solo instrument. Gidon Kremer credited him as “one of the greatest viola masters in current world,” and The Times described him as "without doubt, one of the world's greatest living musicians."

In 1976, Bashmet won first prize at the International Viola Competition in Munich, which launched his international career. He is particularly excellent with the viola works of the 20th century, and he frequently plays with top-level artists from the classical music world while maintaining his special features, which have won him an international reputation.

Composers worldwide have created more than 50 works dedicated to Bashmet, and nearly all of the world’s best orchestras have invited him to appear as soloist. The list of conductors he collaborated with includes Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle and Pierre Boulez. In chamber music, his collaborators include Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich. In January 2013, a jubilee festival with worldwide participation of renowned musicians and a number of special events were dedicated to Bashmet for his 60th birthday celebration. He is also an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Bashmet has released numerous recordings under BMG, Sony and Deutsche Grammophon, and has received multiple recognitions including the Diapason d’Or and Grammy Awards. Other notable DG discs are Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Brahms's Piano Quartet No.1 with Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer and Mischa Maisky, and the recently released Bartok Concerto with Berliner Philharmoniker and Pierre Boulez.

Bashmet plays a 1759 Testore viola, which he bought in 1971. It is a similar model to the one that Mozart played.

Moscow Soloists

Declared by the press as "one of the best of this genre in the world," the Grammy Award-winning Moscow Soloists and its founder Artistic Director Yuri Bashmet have performed over 1,300 concerts in more than 40 countries on five continents, appearing in the world's most prestigious venues and events, including Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Toyko's Suntory Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre and most recently, at the Closing Ceremony of 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

The ensemble has collaborated with notable artists such as Sviatoslav Richter, Gidon Kremer, Mstislav Rostropovich, Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Repin, Shlomo Mintz, Barbara Hendricks, James Galway, Jessye Norman and Anna Netrebko, and has released numerous recordings under EMI, Sony Classical and ONYX with critical acclaim.

The ensemble was created by Yuri Bashmet in 1992, with Bashmet gathering the cream of the graduates of the Moscow State Conservatory. The growing repertoire of the Moscow Soloists is rich and diverse, comprising both masterpieces of classical music and works of contemporary composers as well as rarely performed older works. Consequently, the programmes put together by the Moscow Soloists are marked by their beautiful and interesting premieres.

Fung Dic-lun Gordon

A prolific composer, Gordon Fung's works are performed in Hong Kong and overseas. Fung has received several international awards including Atlas Ensemble Composition Competition Prize, 10th Luxembourg Sinfonietta International Composition Prize, as well as receiving international commissions from South Korea National Gugak Center, Atlas Ensemble, among others. He is currently writing a new work for EXPO Milano 2015's project "Feeding Music".

Fung is a Ph.D. candidate in music composition at the University of Hong Kong.

Lau Hiu-kong Lawrence

Lawrence Lau's works have been premiered and performed locally and abroad in Japan and Italy. He has written numerous chamber music works, such as Thorns (piano trio), Xiao (clarinet quartet), Rain Flower Pebbles (string quartet), among others. His viola solo work The Sweetness of the Land was performed by Hong Kong New Music Ensemble in the concert "Sound-Imagination: Hong Kong One Moment" in November 2013.

Lau is currently a Bachelor of Music student majoring in composition at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Wong Chun-wai

Ronald Wong has a versatile composition profile that ranges from chamber and orchestral music to musicals and film scores. He is the winner of several competitions, such as the 2014 Veridian Symphony Orchestra 2nd Annual Call for Scores Competition (USA) and the New Generation Concert in 2011 (Hong Kong). Wong's music has also been featured in events such as the 59th International Rostrum of Composers (Sweden) and ISCM World Music Days 2012 (Belgium).

Wong is a doctoral candidate (D.Mus) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was granted The Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Scholarship in 2010, 2013 and 2014. His works have been recorded and published by the Hong Kong Composers' Guild.

Ho Shun-yin

Hong Kong

Ho Shun-yin is a Bachelor Degree student at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, majoring in piano studies with Professor Gabriel Kwok. She was awarded the Gold Prize and Soloist Award at the 15th International Chopin Piano Competition in Asia in Tokyo, and has attained prizes at the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival.

Vince Eliezer N. Chua

Vince Chua began his violin training at the age of four. He was admitted to The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2012, where he studied with Prof. Michael Ma. The following year, Chua received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council to participate in the prestigious Aspen Music Festival and School, studying with Ms. Sylvia Rosenberg, Ms. Naoko Tanaka and Mr. James Dunham over the summer.

Chua obtained his Bachelor's degree with First Class Honors and subsequently his Master's degree with distinction from the Academy. He is currently on faculty at the Junior Music Program at his alma mater and a freelance violinist with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Chua also works closely with master Italian violin makers Alfredo and Andrea Primavera and plays on numerous fine instruments.

Prof. Kenneth Kwan

Dr Kenneth Kwan graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo majoring in music theory, conducting and classical guitar. He is currently teaching at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou where he established the classical guitar program. He has appeared on programs for RTHK and TVB, as well as lectures presented by the LCSD to introduce a variety of arts related subjects to the audience.

Dr Kwan is also a seasoned toastmaster who has won international speech contests representing Hong Kong — he is sought after as MC for various events and facilitator of workshops for speech making. In recent years Dr Kwan has turned his attention to standup comedy and has become a regular for shows at the Hong Kong Takeout Comedy performing in English, Cantonese and Putonghua, and he has brought his comedy to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Singapore.

Latica Honda-Rosenberg

"Her assurance and strength of will immediately brought Heifetz to mind. Her musical idiom and her playing are eloquent, expressive, sensitive and variegated, or in short: wonderful uplifting." The Strad

Silver medalist of the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Latica Honda-Rosenberg has appeared across the world as a soloist with eminent orchestras including the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Hanover, MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzing, the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Russian State Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, amongst others. She has released several famous recordings under Oehms Classics with The STRAD selecting one of them with works by Bloch as CD of the Month.

Born to Croatian-Japanese parents, Honda-Rosenberg was a student of Tibor Varga and Zakhar Bron. Between 2003 and 2009, she held a professorship at Musikhochschule Freiburg. In 2009, she was appointed professor at the Berlin University of Arts.

Jens Peter Maintz

Jens Peter Maintz took the classical music world by storm in 1994 when he won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the first cellist to do so in 17 years. Since then, he has performed worldwide with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Marek Janowski, Franz Welser-Möst, and orchestra including the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO), Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orkest of The Hague and Berlin Komische Oper Orchestra.

A dedicated chamber musician, Maintz has partnered with eminent musicians including Janine Jansen, Helene Grimaud, Isabelle Faust, and ensembles such as the Artemis Quartet and Auryn Quartet. Formerly a member of the Trio Fontenay, Mainz became principal cellist of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Claudio Abbado in 2006.

Maintz has released a number of CDs to critical acclaim, including his debut album with works by Bach, Kodaly and Dutilleux by Sony Classical which received the ECHO Klassik award. Formerly a student of renowned cellist David Geringas, Maintz was appointed professor at the Berlin University of Arts in 2004. He plays a cello made by Vincenzo Rugeri in 1696 and another one made by Wofgang Schnabl in 2010.

Virpi Räisänen

Following her recent career change from a successful violinist to a mezzo-soprano, the versatile Finnish opera star Virpi Räisänen has appeared on stages worldwide, including Aix-en-Provence Festival, Radio France's Festival Presences, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Hall, Tokyo's Musashino Recital Hall, Helsinki Music Centre, Staatsoper Berlin, Netherlands Opera and Haendel Festival Halle.

Almognst her many important engagements, Räisänen made her debut at the Salzburger Festspiele in 2009 in Luigi Nono's opera Al gran sole carico d’amore with Ingo Metzmacher conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, followed by an immediate re-engagement in 2010 for the premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's Dionysos at the festival. Other major appearances included her Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Hall debut in 2011 with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra with Sakari Oramo.

In 2012, Räisänen’s highly acclaimed debut CD Legacy of Mahler ;was released by ONDINE. She created the project VIULAJA (violin-mezzo) around her ability to sing and play violin simultaneously. She has sung the leading roles in Handel’s Floridante, Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Offenbach's Le Contes d’Hoffmann. Being a multi-talented artists, Räisänen is also the Artistic Director of Oulunsalo Soi Chamber Music Festival.

Kenny Lam

Kenny Lam is studying in the Dual Degree Program in Technology and Management at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He participated in the Hong Kong School Music Festival as a leader, recorder player and singer. His musical interests span from baroque, jazz, to fusion music.

Kenny has also started studying composition at the University, and has been taught by Bright Sheng and Eli Marshall. He composes both pop music and chamber music. As the sound engineer and arranger of Set Tone Men a cappella group, he has arranged numerous pieces for a cappella singers. Kenny is also an active member in the choir Die Konzertisten. He has obtained Dip ABRSM diploma certificate for piano performance and Grade 8 in treble recorder.

Dimitri Ashkenazy

Born in 1969 in New York, Dimitri Ashkenazy began playing the piano at the age of six and then switched to the clarinet under the tuition of Giambattista Sisini, with whom he continued studying when he entered the Conservatory of Lucerne in 1989.

Dimitri Ashkenazy performs internationally as both a soloist and chamber musician. He has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Japan Philharmonic. In 2014, Ashkenazy made his BBC Proms debut, performing Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Strathclyde Concerto No. 4 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as part of the composer’s 80th birthday celebrations.

An active chamber musician, Dimitri has performed with the Kodály and Faust quartets and with partners such as Barbara Bonney, Helmut Deutsch, David Golub, Edita Gruberova, Ariane Haering, Antonio Meneses, Cristina Ortiz, Maria João Pires, and of course, his brother Vovka and father Vladimir Ashkenazy. At the Lucerne Festival he gave the world premiere of Maxwell Davies' Clarinet Quintet “Hymn to Artemis Locheia” with the Brodsky Quartet.

In addition to his concert activities, Dimitri Ashkenazy has made numerous recordings (Pan Classics, Decca, Ondine), radio broadcasts (Radio Nacional de España, France Musiques, Radio della Svizzera Italiana, DeutschlandRadio) and television appearances, and has given masterclasses in Australia, Spain, Romania, New Zealand, Singapore, Iceland, Switzerland and USA.

Vladimir Ashkenazy

One of the few artists to combine a successful career as a pianist and conductor, Russian-born Vladimir Ashkenazy inherited his musical gift from his parents. Ashkenazy first came to prominence on the world stage in the 1955 Chopin Competition in Warsaw and as first prize-winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 1956. Since then he has built an extraordinary career, not only as one of the most outstanding pianists of the 20th century, but as an artist whose creative life encompasses a vast range of activities and continues to offer inspiration to music-lovers across the world.

Conducting has formed the largest part of Vladimir Ashkenazy’s activities for the past 30 years. He is the Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony and NHK Symphony orchestras. From 2000 to 2015, he was Music Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra; and from 2009 to 2013, he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He maintains strong links with major orchestras including The Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and makes guest appearances with leading ensembles all over the world.

Ashkenazy maintains his devotion to the piano, these days mostly in the recording studio, where he continues to build his extraordinarily comprehensive recording catalogue, including the Grammy award-winning album of Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues, Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No.3 (a work which he commissioned), Bach's Wohltemperierte Klavier, and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Spring 2013 saw the release of ‘Ashkenazy: 50 Years on Decca’ - a 50-CD box-set celebrating Ashkenazy’s long standing relationship with the label. In 2014, Decca also released a milestone collection of Ashkenazy’s vast catalogue of Rachmaninov’s piano music, which also includes all of his recordings as a conductor of the composer’s orchestral music.

Mantua Chamber Orchestra

The Mantua Chamber Orchestra (OCM) was founded in 1981 and has proven to have technical brilliance, great attention to style and a constant search for sound quality. In 1997, the Italy’s National Association of Music Critics awarded the orchestra a Franco Abbiati prize, Italy's most distinguished music awards, for its “unique stylistic refinement, which merges Italian instrumental tradition and classical repertoire”. The OCM resides at Teatro Bibiena in Mantua, which is an authentic jewel of architecture and acoustics.

The OCM has been performing in Italy and abroad for over 30 years with world-renowned conductors and soloists, some of these include Gidon Kremer, Joshua Bell, Salvatore Accardo, Mischa Maisky, and the unforgettable Astor Piazzola, to name a few.

In the last two decades, the orchestra has launched several important artist cycles of selected works by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Schumann. has recorded for several television and radio programs such as RAI, Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Swiss RSTI. In 2009, the OCM recorded three of Haydn’s symphonies, on commission by the most important Italian musical magazine, Amadeus. The OCM has also recorded two well-appreciated CDs with the pianist Angela Hewitt dedicated to Mozart’s piano concertos, published by Hyperion in 2011.

Xuefei Yang

Praised by the Gramophone magazine as one of the leading innovators of her generation, Xuefei was the first-ever guitarist in China to enter a music school and became the first internationally recognised Chinese guitarist on the world stage.

Her first public appearance was at the age of ten and received such acclaim that the Spanish Ambassador in China presented her with a concert guitar. Her debut in Madrid at the age of 14 was attended by the composer Joaquín Rodrigo and, when John Williams heard her play, he gave two of his own instruments to Beijing’s Central Conservatoire especially for her and other advanced students.

Yang’s international success has led to her appearances at numerous prestigious venues in more than 50 countries. She is frequently invited to play with the world’s leading orchestras, & collaborate with artists such as Jian Wang, Ian Bostridge, Rosalind Plowright, Sir James Galway, Elias String Quartet, the Heath Quartet and the cross-over artist David Garrett.

Yang has made many acclaimed recordings for major labels. Her first received a gold disc and her second was selected as ‘Editor’s Choice’ in Gramophone magazine. She has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman's Hour, the BBC Proms, & documentaries on BBC & China Central Television. The UK classical music magazine, Classic FM, named Xuefei as one of the 100 top classical musicians of our time.

Alexander Hülshoff

Alexander Hülshoff has established himself in recent years as one of the leading cellists. His interpretations are distinguished for their expressiveness coupled with an unmistakable, warm and lyrical tone, which are much appreciated by audiences and musical partners alike and are his outstanding qualities on the world's concert platforms. He is guest soloist with major international orchestras such as the German Radio Philharmonic, the German State Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic of Brno, the New Philharmonic of Westphalia, Rom Symphony Orchestra, the Enescu Philharmonic, the Tel Aviv Soloist Ensemble, the Limburg Symphony Orchestra of Maastricht, the Armenian Philharmonic and many others.

Chamber music plays a significant role and has an important place in Hülshoff's work. He has appeared with the Bamberg Trio and fellow musicians such as Pinchas Zukerman, Hagai Shaham, Vadim Gluzman, Fine Arts Quartett, Gil Sharon, Rainer Honeck, Boris Garlitsky in renowned concert halls such as the Berliner Philharmonic, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Rotterdam's De Doelen and the Wigmore Hall in London. He has been guest instrumentalist at the Schleswig Holstein Festival, the Enescu Festival, Kfar Blum in Israel, Amadéo Festival in Slovenia and Musicus Fest in Hong Kong. Hülshoff is also Artistic Director of the Kloster Kamp Chamber Music Festival and the Landauer Meisterkonzerte Serie.

Numerous CDs testify to the breadth of his musical scope, which includes works by Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert, Shostakovitch, Bloch and Servais, amongst others. His recordings are released under the Novalis, Naxos, Musicaphon, Paladino, Brilliant and Hänssler Classic. His concert tours regularly take him to other European countries, the Near, Middle and Far East as well as to Asia and North and South America.

Hülshoff was appointed Professor of Cello at the Folkwang University of the Arts in 1997. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Orchesterzentrum in Dortmund the institute for professional orchestral training of four universities of music (Cologne, Essen, Düsseldorf, Detmold). He is also the Artistic Director of the Villa Musica since 2011.

Elina Vähälä

Elina Vähälä is one of the most sought-after violinists in the international music scene. She is a winner of the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover in 2000.

Born in the United States and raised in Finland, Vähälä began to play the violin at the age of 3 at the Lahti Conservatory. Vähälä made her orchestra debut at the age of 12 with Sinfonia Lahti. Conductor Osmo Vänskä later chose her as Sinfonia Lahti’s “Young Master Soloist.” Since then she has collaborated with this Gramophone Award-winning orchestra regularly. Vähälä has formed another special partnership with the English Chamber Orchestra, with which she has performed around the world and shared the stage with Maxim Vengerov.

In December 2008 Vähälä performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and concert. The television broadcast of the Nobel concert was seen by 300 million households in 100 countries. Vähälä has performed in Europe, the United States and South Africa and on tours in China, Hong Kong and South Korea.

Vähälä plays a 1678 Antonio Stradivari violin generously loaned by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Oliver Triendl

German pianist Triendl has gained a reputation as one of the most versatile players of his instrument. He is especially interested in rarely performed repertoire from the Classical and Romantic periods and has a commitment to contemporary works. Triendl is featured on more than 80 recordings and has given concerts at all major music venues in Europe, North and South America, Asia, South Africa and Russia.

A native of Mallersdorf (Bavaria), Triendl was winner of several national and international competitions. He is a student of Rainer Fuchs, Karl-Heinz Diehl, Eckart Besch, Gerhard Oppitz and Oleg Maisenberg.

As a soloist, Triendl has performed with such celebrated orchestras as the Bamberg and Munich Symphonies, NDR Radio Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, St. Petersburg Camerata, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Zagreb Soloists. As a passionate chamber musician, he has collaborated with musicians such as Lorin Maazel, Ana Chumachenko, David Geringas, Ilya Gringolts, Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, Pekka Kuusisto, Baiba Skride, François Leleux, Sharon Kam, Paul Meyer, Sabine and Wolfgang Meyer, Radovan Vlatković, Carolin and Jörg Widmann, as well as the Auryn, Carmina, Keller, Leipzig, Pražák, Sine Nomine and Vogler quartets, to name just a few.

In 2006, Triendl founded the Fürstensaal Classix International Chamber Music Festival in Kempten in Bavaria's Allgäu region.

Bevis Ng

Bevis Ng started learning percussion at a young age, under the tutelage of Margie Tong. He is currently a percussion major in the Bachelor of Music program at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he receives full support from the HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund. His teachers include the renowned percussionist Dr. Lung Heung-wing and James Boznos, principal timpanist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ng has won various international and local music competitions. He was one of the concerto winners at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2018 and performed Emmanuel Sejourne’s Concerto for Marimba and Strings with the Academy Symphony Orchestra. In September 2017, he won the first prize in Marimba Category A in the Hong Kong-Macau-Taiwan regional percussion competition, organized by the International Percussion Education Association.

Ng has participated in various international music festivals, including the Beta Percussion International Institution (Eugene, OR) and Zeltsman Marimba Festival (New Brunswick, NJ). He has also participated in numerous masterclasses by percussion and marimba virtuosos, including Pius Cheung, Eriko Daimo, Nancy Zeltsman, Nanae Mimura, to name a few.

Besides percussion, Ng studied the clarinet with Anthony Wong and obtained both the Associate and Licentiate of the Trinity College London Diplomas in Clarinet Recital.

A passionate composer, Ng has also studied composition under Poly Ng. At the age of 12, he became the winner of Junior Division in the Pikes Peak Young Composers Competition.

Ng is also committed to local community activities. He has performed in Musicus Heritage Community Concert. He was also featured in the Chamber Music Gala in Musicus Fest 2017, sharing the stage with the world renowned guitarist Yang Xuefei.

Ursula Volkmann

Ursula Volkmann is a dedicated actress of commedia dell’arte and educator of the theatre. Following an acting workshop under the direction of Antonio Fava, one of the leading specialists in commedia dell’arte, she decided to dedicate herself intensively to acting, giving her debut at the Cook Theatre in Sarasota in 2005 with Vita, Morte e Resurrezione di Pulcinella. Apart from engaging in other workshops and productions directed by Antonio Fava, Volkmann continued her training as an actress with Riccardo Vannuccini (founder of theatre company Il Cane Pezzato) and Jean-Paul Denizon (former assistant of Peter Brook) amongst others and performed in their productions.

As a member of the theatre company Arété Ensemble, Volkmann has devoted her efforts on theatre for children and young people in recent years, both as an actress and an author. She has conducted bilingual stage readings and acting workshops for children. Volkmann also volunteered for the Fondazione Cusani Onlus, which promotes orchestral playing at public schools in socially deprived districts of Rome. Together with Maddalena Recino, with whom she has formed the acting duo DialiaDuett since 2015, she developed a short play on the subject of female leadership, which premiered at the Salone del Risparmio financial fair in Milan in May 2023 and has since been performed at several universities and companies in Italy and Switzerland.

Since her early childhood, Ursula Volkmann has been passionately involved with music and dance. She received her master’s degree in musicology from Université Paris. As a soprano, Ursula Volkmann is a member of the vocal ensemble Coro Polifonico Guido Guinizelli. Volkmann has also worked in the management teams of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Mavis Lam

Mavis Lam Tsan-tong helped found Wuji Ensemble in 2003 and is currently its concert leader.

A graduate of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, majoring in Chinese music, Lam is a seasoned and versatile pipa and ruan soloist, and has collaborated extensively with choreographers, theatre directors, and arts groups in live performances. She is particularly known for her improvised contributions.

Recent performances include Finland’s Kumho Chamber Music Festival 2016; the Hong Kong Dance Company’s Reveries of the Red Chamber and Vipassana; Jiangsu Performing Arts Group Opera and Dance Theatre’s Xiangjun-Dream; Wuji Ensemble’s Boundless Groove: A Sonic Journey in Nature; and the multi-media music theatre performance To Someone Alike.

In addition to her career as a performer, Lam is also active as a music educator, and as a frequent recording artist for the soundtracks of television dramas. Recently, she has also become involved in music meditation activities, hoping to use music played from the heart to help audiences find their inner peace.

Jo Chim

Jo Chim discovered theatre at Brown University. She moved to Hong Kong after graduation, where she worked a number of jobs in the arts and media. She re-discovered her passion for theatre and decided to pursue acting full time back in North America.

Favourite theatre credits include Celia in Shakespeare's As You Like It and Fumiko in Hana’s Suitcase. Jo has appeared in Hollywood movies such as Take The Lead with Antonio Banderas and Mean Girls with Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan where she plays the much-memed "You can always try Sears" saleslady. Jo returned to Hong Kong in 2009 and last appeared onstage as Annette in Theatre du Pif's God of Carnage at the HK Cultural Centre.

Erita Lee Acham Chen

With her successful performance at the 2017 Marco Polo Goes to Carnival, Erita Chen is taking on a new challenge this year as the Chinese Danseur in the production.

Erita has performed on RTHK television program ‘The Works’ and won a number of prizes locally and abroad, including the Award of Excellence from Goh Ballet, the prestigious Canadian ballet institution. She was also the only dancer from Hong Kong who participated at the American Ballet Theater New York Summer Intensive in 2018.

She has studied with world-renowned pedagogues and prima ballerinas such as Leslie Browne, Chan Hon Goh, Cynthia Harvey and Cheryl Yeager. She has also been trained under Jun Mabaquiao and Victoria Vargas, the latter having choreographed and coached Erita for the 2017 Marco Polo Goes to Carnival. Erita was previously a student at the Hong Kong Youth Ballet Academy. In 2018, she was selected to join the Gifted Young Dancer Program of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Erita is currently a student at the Hong Kong International School. She was recently a middle school recipient of the Presidential Academic Excellence Award sponsored by the US Department of Education and the US President’s office. Besides dancing, Erita is also an avid singer and artist in Chinese painting.

Victoria Vargas

A native of Venezuela, Victoria Vargas began her training at the School of Ballet Nacional of Cuba and Venezuela. She worked with the Venezuelan National Ballet Company, the San Francisco Opera House, Dallas Opera House, the Lyric Opera House of Chicago and the Luna Negra Dance Theater, which she founded.

Apart from appearing on stage, Vargas has proved herself a prominent ballet teacher. She is a former faculty at the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. She is also an Artistic Associate for Elements Contemporary Ballet. Vargas earned a nomination by the City of Chicago as one of the most prominent Latinas in the expansion of educational programs for dancers.

Vargas has also taught in St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, Madrid and Seville, Ballet De Panama, Ballet De Jalisco Guadalajara and Academy of Arts Ciudad de Mexico, Hong Kong and Portugal. During 2014 she taught in the summer program with Dance Master Class (Italy, Spain, Portugal) under the leadership of Angela D’Melo, former principal of the Royal Ballet. Her students are among the finalists of the Youth America Grand Prix International Ballet Competition and the New York finals of the Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition.

Yeung Ching-ho

Grammy Yeung Ching-ho attained her Master of Music degree, majoring in zheng, at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and is a music major graduate from the University of Hong Kong. Recipient of the Rayson Huang Scholarship in Music and Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship, Yeung won the gold medal in the 6th International Zheng Contest (Professional Youth Group). She was a finalist in Young Music Makers organized by RTHK in 2017, and performed in concerts organized by Musicus Society and French May Arts Festival. She was invited to perform at Bali, Singapore and Macau and has held various solo recitals. She is currently a guest instrumental tutor at the Education University of Hong Kong.

Yen Liang-pei

Yen Liang-pei is an actress from Taiwan. She has lived and studied performing in Paris at L’École Philippe Gaulier. She also has background in physical theater, clown, bouffon, and commedia dell’arte. Yen returned to Taiwan in 2013, and founded PHi Acting Laboratory with her creative partner Wu Zong-en in 2014. They continue to collaborate with the different artists from different countries, including directors, dancers and musicians. Since 2015, group has toured Taiwan with the cabaret show, Girls Talk, which targets to give 50 performances in total.

In recent years, Yen has performed in the monodrama, Pan Jinlian, which was part of the Dulan Sugar Refinery Residency Project. In 2017, Yen was featured in the War and Peace Picture Book Concert in the Taiwan Festival in Macau. She has also performed in the experimental theater piece entitled Guns and Flowers with Point View Art of Macau.

Apart from her interest in new forms of theater, Yen also extended her interest in commedia dell’arte. She has participated in the commedia dell’arte workshops by Antonio Fava, as well as that organized by ESP-I Performing Arts Group in Taiwan. Yen also made her Musicus Fest debut in the Children’s Concert Marco Polo Goes to Carnival last year.

Sophie Klussmann

The German soprano Sophie Klussmann, a student of Thomas Quastoff and Margaret Honig, has a warm, wide-ranging and dark-hued voice; though lyric in nature, it has dramatic potential that can assert itself without strain against a large orchestra. Rapidly building an international reputation as an operatic and concert performer in a diversity of styles and repertoire, Klussmann has sung the major roles in her Fach at the Halle Opera in Germany. She sang the role of Pamina from The Magie Flute at Berlin’s Seefestspiele and covered Anna Netrebko as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Baden Baden Opera Festival.

The composers Christian Jost and Edward Rushton have written operatic roles for Klussmann and she took the female lead opposite John Malkovich in his theatre piece The Giacomo Variations. In concert, she has collaborated with conductors like Marek Janowski, Ingo Metzmacher, Hulmut Rilling, Michael Sanderling and Karl-Heinz Steffens in works by Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler, and with leading figures in the field of historically informed performance, such as Marcus Creed, Václav Luks and Martin Haselböck. In the chamber and song repertoire, she has a particular passion for music from the late 19th and the early 20th centuries.

Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli

A highly selective musician, Michaelanangeli favors collaborating with orchestras which share his musical and human ideals.

After a very precocious initiation to studying music, under the tutorship of his aunt Nuccia Matucci, he has studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire in Milan with Maestri Conter, Bettinelli and Gusella. Michalangeli later completed his coaching under the notable guidance of Maestro Franco Ferrara.

Michaelangeli has worked with such orchestras including Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Camerata Academica Salzburg, Operaballet Vlaaderen Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Goteborg Symfoniker, Budapest Festival Orchestra, China National Orchestra and Israel Chamber Orchestra. Moreover, he has established a special relationship with Kammerorchester Basel for many years.

His long-standing collaboration with Orchestra da Camera di Mantova (of which he was the Principal Conductor from 1984 to 2007) is a milestone in his career, and enabled him to be granted the Franco Abbati proze, awarded by the Association of Italian Music Critics.

Hannah Tam

Hailed by The STRAD with “amazing conviction and variety of tone”,  16-year-old Hannah Tam has garnered distinctive international accolades, including the Third Prize and Audience Prize at the Menuhin International Competition Junior Division 2021, the Audience Prize at “Mini Violin” of The Concours Musical International de Montréal 2019 where she was the only awardee, the Memorial Performance Award at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, First Prize and Overall Winner of Concorso Andrea Postacchini in Italy, among others.   

Tam has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Japan, Finland, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Canada and the United States; appeared in prestigious venues such as Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland and La Jolla Music Festival in San Diego. Her concerto debut at aged 10 with the Virtuosi Italiani Chamber Orchestra in Verona was immediately followed by an invitation from the renowned cellist Trey Lee to appear with him as a double concerto soloist at the Musicus Fest, concerto soloist with Chamber Orchestra of Musici de Montréal under maestro Cho Liang Lin as well as a concerto appearance with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under maestro Nicholas Carter. Recently, she performed as a soloist with Musicus Fest Chamber Orchestra and The Inheritage Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed chamber music with great masters such as violinists Gil Shaham and Cho Liang Lin, and the late violist Vladimir Mendelssohn. In 2020, Hannah was awarded The Certificate of Commendation by the Hong Kong SAR Government.  

Since age 12, Tam has been studying with Professor Ida Kavafian at The Curtis Institute of Music under the Demeng Charity Foundation Fellowship. She is also a recipient of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship. Previously, she studied with Professor Michael Ma, Maria Jee and Chan Kwok Wai at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Junior Music Program and Warren Lee at the St. Paul’s Co-educational College and Primary School.  

Tam plays on a G.B. Guadagnini Torino 1778 ex-Blavet kindly on loan by Alfredo Primavera.

Mauro Borgioni

Baritone Mauro Borigioni is a specialist in Baroque repertoire. He has sung the roles of Orfeo and Apollo in L’Orfeo by Monteverdi; Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell; and Astolfo in Oralndo Furioso by Vivaldi. His repertoire includes masterpieces like Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew’s Passion and St. John’s Passion, and Mass in B Minor by J. S. Bach; Handel’s Messiah as well as sacred masterpieces by Haydn Mozart and Fauré.

Borgioni is also active in contemporary repertoire, most notably for his performances in Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River and Noye’s Fludde with Prato Chamber Orchestra and Johnatan Webb. He has also sung the role Aye in Akhnaten by Philip Glass with the Orchestra of Teatro Regio in Turin led by Dante Anzolini.

Borgoni has collaborated with various orchestras and ensembles in Europe. He has also sung in some of the most important halls and theaters including Wien Konzerthaus, Teatro Regio Torino, Cité de la Musique Paris, Kolner Philharmonie, Auditorium de Madrid, National Centre for Arts of Beijing. Borigioni has participated in various festivals and concert seasons in Europe, the Americas and Canada. He has recorded for Alpha-Prod, Brilliant Classics, Stradivarius, K617, Glossa, fra Bernardo, Ricercar.

Jan Söderblom

Söderblom was born into a family of musicians in Helsinki. Now a conductor and violinist, he began giving concerts at an early stage in his violin studies.

Aside from solo appearances at a young age, successful touring with New Helsinki Quartet and his growing interest towards orchestral musicianship built the foundation for Söderblom’s versatile and innovative career. Conductor studies at Sibelius Academy led to intensive projects with top orchestras. Söderblom has since conducted orchestras such as Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Avanti!, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orquesta RTVE, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, MDR Sinfonieorkester (Leipzig), Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra KORK, Norrköping and Helsingborg symphony orchestras and Orchestra National Bordeaux Aquitane, among others. During 2001-2008 Söderblom served as Artistic Director of Lappeenranta City Orchestra. From 2012 to 2016 Söderblom was the conductor of Pori Sinfonietta.

In the Swedish Royal Opera Söderblom has conducted The Makropulos Affair by Leoš Janáček as well as two first performances, Sport och fritid (2005) by Thomas Jennefelt and, in cooperation with Norrlandsoperan, Svall (2006) by Daniel Börtz. He also conducted the much talked-about first performance of Veli-Matti Puumala’s opera Anna Liisa at Helsinki Festival in 2008. Söderblom has conducted several ballet productions at Finnish National Opera, as well as Fredrik Pacius’ opera Kung Karls jakt.

Before his career as conductor took off, Söderblom performed as a violinist, mainly with New Helsinki Quartet (1982-2001). After the quartet won competitions of Viitasaari, Concertino Praga and second prize in the London String Quartet Competition, they toured widely and performed in Wigmore Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Herkulessaal in Munich, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Konzerthaus in Berlin. As a soloist he has shared the stage with several Finnish orchestras such as Swedish Radio Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and many others.

Söderblom has been the Artistic Director of several Finnish music festivals; currently he is in charge of the artistic planning of the Festivo Rauma and Kauniaisten musiikkijuhlat.

Söderblom has played as guest concertmaster for several orchestras and joined Camerata Salzburg and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra on stage as guest member. Since 2015, Söderblom is the first concertmaster of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tsai Loo

Tsai Loo obtained his Bachelor of Music degree and Professional Diploma at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), studying with Alice Waten, the former Head of Strings, Michael Ma and Chao Bee-darn.

During his studies there, he was awarded the Ricci Scholarship for Violin Performance and Exxon Scholarship. As a chamber musician he has played a recital with his Trio for RTHK and gave a performance at the Government House. In the summers of 1992, 1994 and 1996, he joined the Asian Youth Orchestra and toured Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. In 1995, Tsai was selected to participate in the recording of the HKAPA’s 10th Anniversary recording.
Tsai is currently Assistant Principal Second Violin of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.

Xu Ting

Born in Wuhan, China, Xu Ting began studying the piano at the age of four. She was later admitted to the Wuhan Conservatory of Music to study cello under Prof. Long Man in 2002. She entered The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts to further her studies under Prof. Ray Wang in 2010 with full scholarship. After graduating from the Bachelor's degree of Music program with first class honors in 2015, she is now pursing her Master of Music degree at the Academy.

She has won multiple competitions including the First Prize at the Beijing Great Wall International Music Festival Concerto Competition, Second Prize at the Cross-Strait (Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Canton) Cello Competition (Young Professional Category) and the Special Prize at the 6th National Cello Competition in China and is currently a recipient of the VM Strings Scholarship. She has also appeared as soloist with the Academy Symphony Orchestra and Beijing Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Xu participated in master classes with David Geringas, Laurence Lesser, Steven Isserlis, Carter Brey, Bion Tsang, Liwei Qin and Sadao Harada. As a member of the Gloucester String Quartet, graduate quartet in residence of the Academy, she joined master classes held by the Shanghai, Szymanowski, Penderecki, Chilingirian, Endellion, Miró, Debussy and Miami string quartets.

Xu plays an 1836 Simon Andrew Forster of London on loan from the Society of The Academy for Performing Arts (SAPA).

Juha Hostikka

Juha Hostikka is the lead vocalist and leader of the Dallapé ensemble, which is the longest-operating dance music band in all of Europe and was established in 1925. Apart from his work with Dallapé,Hostikka is known for his numerous roles in operas and musicals. Juha Hostikka has performed as the lead vocalist for many symphony orchestras, and at many festivals around Finland and Europe, such as Savonlinna Opera Festival, The Proms in London, Pori Jazz, Sata-Häme Soi Accordion Festival, Naantali Music Festival and Seinäjoki Tango Festival.

With the Dallapé ensemble, Juha Hostikka has released records under Blue Note and Sony.

Juha Hostikka has studied singing at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under the tuition of Erkki Rajamäki and Peter Lindroos. Internationally, he has studied, for example in France with François Le Roux, in England with Peter Maxwell-Anderson, and in Germany with Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll.

Hostikka's love for singing was sparked by his very first teacher, the legendary Finnish tango singer Reijo Taipale, and to this day, Hostikka is particularly passionate about tango music and older popular music.

The Finnish Musicians’ Union has awarded Hostikka for his impressive musical career and significant contribution to Finnish popular music. In 2015, the Finnish President Sauli Niinistö invited Hostikka to the Presidential Independence Day Ball to recognize his efforts of continuing the prestigious work of Dallapé.

Patrick Yeung

A graduate of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Patrick Yeung took the HKU Department of Music’s Advanced Music Performance course, with Gordon Lee acting as his mentor during his undergraduate studies.

Yeung has played the harmonica in settings ranging from street-busking and outdoor carnivals to theatrical productions and concert halls. In 2016, he collaborated with renowned cellist and Musicus Fest Artistic Director Trey Lee for the Shared Stage: Trey Lee & HKU Musicians concert, performing Café 1930 by Astor Piazzolla. He was also invited by the Musicus Society to be a guest performer in the Musicus Heritage concerts, and to work with band leader and vocalist Juha Hostikka and accordionist Niko Kumpuvaara from the legendary Finnish dance music band Dallapé.

Yeung is an active participant in music competitions and has won several awards at both the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival and the Hong Kong Joint Schools Music Competition. In 2017, he participated in the Seoul International Harmonica Festival, clinching two championships in the Adult Solo Chromatic and Duo categories, and was named one of the Young Music Makers 2017 by RTHK.

In 2018 Yeung became the champion and the second runner-up in the Open Duo and Open Chromatic Harmonica Solo categories respectively at the 12th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival, held in Beijing.

Niko Kumpuvaara

Niko Kumpuvaara is one of Finland's most renowned contemporary accordionists.

Kumpuvaara is known for working diversely in music — regardless of traditional genre restrictions. With primary focus in contemporary accordion music, he has premiered music by Patrick Busseuil, Ere Lievonen, Lauri Kilpiö, Pasi Lyytikäinen and Jimmy Lopez. As a soloist, he has performed with Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Oulu Symphony, Vogtland Philharmonie, St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Insomnio and coveted military orchestra Guards Band. He is also member of the legendary Finnish dance music orchestra Dallapé.

Kumpuvaara has won awards in several international competitions, such as 1st prize in The Klingenthal International Accordion Competition, regarded as the most prominent accordion competition in the world, in 2005, and 3rd prize in the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition, the biggest international contemporary music competition for all instruments, in 2007.

In addition to working as a musician, Kumpuvaara was appointed as the Adjunct Professor of accordion at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz in 2009. He operated as the Art Director of Oulu Music Festival from 2008 to 2012, and at the moment he is on his fourth year as the Art Director of renowned accordion festival Sata-Häme Soi.

Kumpuvaara studied at the Sibelius Academy under Marjut Tynkkynen, completing his music master's degree in 2008, his teachers include Matti Rantanen, Iñaki Alberdi and Timo Kinnunen.

Chu Sui-ming

Chu Sui-ming, concert pianist and teacher of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, recently attained her Bachelor of Arts in music and movement from Haute École Specialisée de Suisse Occidentale: Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva. She is the only Hong Kong-Chinese to have attained such a qualification.

Chu has taught Dalcroze Eurhythmics courses in Europe and in Hong Kong, and developed her cross-media performance style, inter-relating music with dance, poetry,painting and drama. She founded the Hong Kong Dalcroze Music Center in 2012 with a mission to spread eurhythmics in Hong Kong.

Martin Heyes

Martin Heyes was brought up and educated near Liverpool, UK. Upon completion of his GCE “A” levels, he entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was subsequently served in the British Army as an infantry officer in the UK and Germany.

After leaving the Army in 1975, Heyes joined the (then) Royal Hong Kong Police Force and served for 26 years, before retiring in the rank of Chief Inspector. Throughout his service he served predominantly in the uniform branch in various Districts and Regions, including the (then) Marine District. Heyes has first-hand experience and fond memories at the Marine Police Headquarters, since he was trained and has served there when it was functioning.

After retirement from the Police, Heyes worked for nearly 7 years as the manager of the local security guard project at the United States Consulate-General in Hong Kong.

Heyes is an accredited a tour guide recognized by the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong. He now works part-time for a local company specialising in both urban and rural walks of the territory for tourists and local residents.

Dr. Au Hin-fung

Dr. Au Hin-fung received his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in History, Master of Social Sciences (Contemporary China Studies) and Doctor of Philosophy from the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU).

Dr. Au has been Heritage Assistant at Antiquities and Monuments Office and Research Associate at HKBU Department of History, and currently works at HKBU’s History Gallery Project as Research Associate.

His research interest focuses on cultural exchange in East Asia, with emphasis on the history of publishing in modern China. He also has worked on the architectural history of Hong Kong and Canton area.

Tapiola Sinfonietta Chamber Ensemble

"No matter how high your expectations are, these players will always outperform them. There is no such a thing as disappointment with these artists…" – Bachtrack

Since being founded in 1987, the Tapiola Sinfonietta has achieved world fame particularly for its mastery of the Viennese Classical repertoire. The orchestra has a unique structure – the artistic planning is in the hands of a team of three consisting of the General Manager and two musicians, in the spirit of modern, shared leadership, guided by joy, artistry and commitment. The orchestra has three Artists-in-Association at a time, each adding his or her own special edge to the artistic policy. In this spirit, the orchestra has collaborated with top conductors and artists from Finland and abroad, namely Hannu Lintu, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Masaaki Suzuki, Isabelle Faust, Stefan Jackiw, Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen.

The continuous development of this alliance of 41 orchestra players has also been heightened by co-productions with top artists in the fields of drama, dance, circus, jazz and popular music. Members of the orchestra also appear as soloists and chamber musicians and play in Baroque, jazz and folk ensembles.

The Tapiola Sinfonietta has a discography of more than 60 titles on the BIS, Ondine and Naxos labels, many of which have received critical acclaim. Its recording of Magnus Lindberg’s Violin Concerto with violinist Pekka Kuusisto in 2014 was chosen by French music magazine Classicaas as the "Choc de l’Année" (Record of the Year); its Anna Liisa (2015) opera recording in 2015 with director Jan Söderblom was Editor’s Choice in Grammophone and Helsingin Sanomat (the main newspaper in Finland).

The orchestra acts as an ambassador of Finnish culture on its tours to Asia and Central Europe.

Tapiola Sinfonietta Woodwind Quintet

No matter how high your expectations are, these players will always outperform them. There is no such a thing as disappointment with these artists…” – Bachtrack

Since being founded in 1987, the Tapiola Sinfonietta has achieved world fame particularly for its mastery of the Viennese Classical repertoire. The orchestra has a unique structure – the artistic planning is in the hands of a team of three consisting of the General Manager and two musicians, in the spirit of modern, shared leadership, guided by joy, artistry and commitment. The orchestra has three Artists-in-Association at a time, each adding his or her own special edge to the artistic policy. In this spirit, the orchestra has collaborated with top conductors and artists from Finland and abroad, namely Hannu Lintu, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Masaaki Suzuki, Isabelle Faust, Stefan Jackiw, Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen.

The continuous development of this alliance of 41 orchestra players has also been heightened by co-productions with top artists in the fields of drama, dance, circus, jazz and popular music. Members of the orchestra also appear as soloists and chamber musicians and play in Baroque, jazz and folk ensembles.

The Tapiola Sinfonietta has a discography of more than 60 titles on the BIS, Ondine and Naxos labels, many of which have received critical acclaim. Its recording of Magnus Lindberg’s Violin Concerto with violinist Pekka Kuusisto in 2014 was chosen by French music magazine Classicaas as the "Choc de l’Année" (Record of the Year); its Anna Liisa (2015) opera recording in 2015 with director Jan Söderblom was Editor’s Choice in Grammophone and Helsingin Sanomat (the main newspaper in Finland).

The orchestra acts as an ambassador of Finnish culture on its tours to Asia and Central Europe.

David Theodore

David Theodore studied the oboe at the Royal Academy, London and at the age of twenty was appointed Principal Oboe in the BBC Welsh Orchestra. Since then he has held various London positions including Principal in the BBC Symphony, The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the London Philharmonic where he was Principal for twenty years and has worked with Christopher Warren-Green for many years.

He has recorded the Mozart Oboe Concerto and the Vaughan Williams Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra for Chandos Records. He has recorded the soundtrack for many films, including Lord of the Rings,Harry Potter and the James Bond movies. Theodore is a professor of the oboe at the Royal College of Music and has also been appointed a Fellow of both the Royal Academy and the Guildhall School of Music.

Meyrick Alexander

Before taking up his position as Head of Woodwind at Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 2010, Meyrick Alexander had held the position of Principal Bassoon in the Philharmonia Orchestra since 1980, before which he was a member of several leading orchestras including the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia.

Meyrick is Principal Bassoon of the London Chamber Orchestra and has played period instruments with John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. He is a regular guest principal with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has performed extensively as a chamber musician and as a guest with nearly every British symphony and chamber orchestra, and is also a regular soloist at the annual International Double Reed Conference in the USA, Australia and the UK.

In contemporary music, he is the dedicatee of a number of solo works and has performed with the London Sinfonietta. He has been a member of the teaching staff at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Birmingham Conservatoire, and the Royal Northern College of Music and he regularly gives master classes and recitals at all the leading conservatoires in Britain and several in Europe, Australia, USA and the Middle and Far East. He has also served on the jury on three major international competitions.

Chen Yeung-ping

Yeung-ping Chen is a Hong Kong-born composer. Over the course of his career, Chen has been awarded several prestigious prizes, including scholarships from Hong Kong (CASH Music Scholarship for Oversea Studies, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund) and grants from the International Summer Course in Darmstadt, Germany, the Harry and Alice Eiler Foundation, Diane Lin Memorial scholarship from the Friends of the International Center, Nee Commission Award, and Altius Fellowship from Asian Cultural Council in the United States.

Chen was composer-fellow for the Ensemble 2010 Project in Darmstadt, the International Ensemble Modern Academy in 2011, and June in Buffalo 2012. He has also worked with Christopher Rountree, Steven Schick, Marino Formenti, Mark Dresser, Susan Narucki, Alice Teyssier, Jessica Aszodi, James Cuddeford, Yuki Numata, Jeffrey Milarsky, the Mivos Quartet, the JACK Quartet, UMS n’ JIP (Switzerland), Tactus Ensemble (Manhattan School of Music), Red Fish Blue Fish, Ensemble Dal Niente (Chicago), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, La Jolla Symphony Orchestra, and the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong.

Chen earned his degrees at the Hong Kong Baptist University, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.Chen is currently a doctoral candidate at the UCLA, with research focusing on telematic musical composition and hyper-transcriptional compositional process "Sonic Engraving" under the supervision of Prof. Lei Liang.

Elpidio Magat

Elpidio Magat joined Ballet Manila in June 2005. His repertoire includes The Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Pinocchio, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, La Fille mal gardée, Romeo and Juliet, Le Corsaire, Les Sylphides, Giselle and Sleeping Beauty.

Magat won the Silver medal (Pas de deux division) of the 3rd Asian Grand Prix competition in Hong Kong. He was also a semifinalist in the 2nd Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition (Pas de deux division) held in China in July 2013.

Magat was part of Ballet Manila’s delegation to the 9th Yeosu International Youth Cultural Festival in Korea. He has also represented the Philippines in international performances, including East Meets West UK and Ireland in 2011, the 2011 Gyeongju World Culture Expo in Korea, and the Gyeongju Silk Road Festival in Korea in 2015.

David Ho-yi Chan

David Ho-Yi Chan (b.1992) is a young composer, conductor and organist born in Hong Kong. Along his profound interest in exploring harmonic syntax, Chan’s music seeks to enrich the beauty of simplicity and exemplifies solid practical writings with a clear sense of direction building and consistency by integrating both contemporary and traditional concepts. Highlighted commissioners and collaborators include BBC Singers, Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Choir of St Pancras Church, Hong Kong Oratorio Society, Hong Kong Strings, RTHK Quartet, Hong Kong Children’s Choir, Yat Po Singers, Romer (String Quartet), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong Youth Windophilics among others.

Chan graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Music, with organ study under the tutelage of Kin-Yu Wong and composition studies under the tutelage of Victor Chan, Wendy Wan-Ki Lee and Hau-Man Lo. Between 2014 and 2017, Chan was invited to present his works in various international conferences and music festivals.

Chan graduated from the Royal College of Music where he obtained a Master of Composition under the tutelage of Joseph Horovitz and Kenneth Hesketh, and studied organ under the tutelage of Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin and David Graham. During his study in London, he had been served as the Director of Music at John Keble Church. Notably, Chan led the choir for serving in the choral evensong with the Bishop of London during the Patronal Festival for commemorating the 150th anniversary of John Keble’s death.

Minna Pensola

Minna Pensola performs extensively as a chamber musician and soloist collaborating with conductors such as Sakari Oramo, Olari Elts, Eva Ollikainen and John Storgårds. She is a founding member of the most internationally successful Finnish string quartet Meta4 which is the first prize winner of the Dimitri Shostakovich String Quartet Competition (Moscow 2004) and the Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition (Vienna 2007). Meta4 performs regularly in key music capitals and concert halls around the world.

Minna Pensola is a co-founder of The Punavuori Chamber Music Society, and runs a club for classical music in her home town Helsinki since 2008. She has also acted as the Artistic Director of the Sysmä Summer Sounds Festival in Finland during years 2006-2012. Pensola teaches violin at the Sibelius Academy and is a guest tutor at European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA).

Pensola has studied at the Sibelius Academy, Musikhochschule Zürich and European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) and enjoyed valuable guidance of Kaija Saarikettu, Ana Chumachenko, Hatto Beyrle and Josef Rissin.

Minna Pensola plays the Carlo Bergonzi violin (1732) kindly on loan from Signe ja Ane Gyllenberg Foundation.

In her free time she looks and cleans after her two small daughters who’s impeccable logic keeps her in constant marvelling.

Joan Emery Sia

Joan Emery Sia joined Ballet Manila in June 2009. She was a finalist in the 2010 National Music Competitions for Young Artists (NAMCYA), Senior Division. In August 2013, she won the Silver medal in the Pas de deux division of the 3rd Asian Grand Prix competition in Hong Kong.

Joan has danced major roles of classical ballet, including the title roles in Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Paquita, and Blue Bird in Sleeping Beauty.

Joan was part of Ballet Manila’s international performances including Ballet Under the Stars in Singapore in 2011. She has also appeared in the Gyeongju Silk Road Festival in Korea in 2015, and in the 40th Anniversary of Philippine Vietnam International Friendship Day in Vietnam in 2016.

The Trondheim Soloists

Founded in 1988, the Trondheim Soloists has since established itself as one of the most distinguished ensembles in Norway, carving out its own musical territory with passion, perfection and raw intensity. The ensemble has won international recognition for its own distinctively open and clear orchestral sound, described by the British music magazine Classic FM as “The Trondheim Sound”. The ensemble is also a three-time winner of the Spellemannpriser (Norwegian music awards), boasting an impressive resume of ten Grammy nominations as well as glowing international reviews with an addition of four recordings.

The year 1999 saw the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with the illustrious violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, which included concerts, tours and recordings. The ensemble’s best-selling release to date has been Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, with Mutter as soloist on the Deutsche Grammophon label (with approximately 700,000 records sold). This has contributed to the orchestra’s growing reputation at home and abroad, leading to an increasing number of engagements. The orchestra has performed with leading artists not only in classical music, but also in jazz, folk music, rock and pop.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Geir Inge Lotsberg since 2017, the ensemble continues to develop the virtuosity and confidence that allow them to play what they want, when they want, and to take chances rather than play safe. Members of the Trondheim Solosists also devote their time to the development of musical talent and the fostering of an enduring musical environment in their home town. The promotion of Norwegian music and of contemporary music is also a strong commitment. The ensemble never travels abroad without Norwegian music on its program, and it has premiered about 50 works specially written for the orchestra.

Zheng Yang

Zheng Yang received his master degree with distinction from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), where he studied under the head of the string department, Professor Michael Ma. Zheng was the first violin of the Gloucester String Quartet and the concertmaster of the Academy Symphony Orchestra. He was also twice winner of the concerto competition at the Academy.

Zheng has been selected to perform at a number of masterclasses organized by the Academy and the Hong Kong Arts Festival, given by a number of musicians, including Silvia Rosenberg, Donald Weilerstein, Earl Carlyss, Günter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, James Dunham, Ning Feng, Cho-Liang Lin, Dan Zhu, Leonidas Kavakos and Renaud Capuçon. Zheng took part in the Kent Blossom Music Festival in 2011 and 2012, where he performed with the Cleveland Orchestra.

In addition to giving solo performances, Zheng is also a devoted chamber musician. His Gloucester String Quartet received first prize in the Schoenfeld International String Competition in 2013. In 2015, the quartet represented the HKAPA on a ten-day tour to the Royal Academy of Music and the Wells Cathedral School in the UK. In 2016, they collaborated with the Hong Kong New Music at the Tongyeong International Music Festival in Korea. The quartet has also taken part in the McGill International String Quartet Academy in Montreal, one of the world’s top chamber music festivals. In 2017, the Gloucester String Quartet was invited to perform at the HKSAR 20th anniversary concert series in London, organized by the Hong Kong government. They also took part in the prestigious Aspen Music Festival in Colorado on a full scholarship.

Zheng is currently chamber music coach and junior department violin teacher at the HKAPA.

Pan Ya-sze

Pan Ya-sze began studying the Yangqin at the Hong Kong Music Office in 1981 under Chan Kei-cham. She was a member of the Hong Kong Youth Chinese Orchestra and has toured to Singapore, Australia, USA, Canada, Italy and Germany. She obtained her Bachelor degree of Arts in Music from the Acadia University in Canada and Master of Education from the University of Hong Kong.

A member of the Chinese Music Virtuosi since 1997, Pan has appeared in Musicus Fest 2013 and 2014. She has also participated in the productions of When Petals Fall in Serenity and Beyond the Senses in Atmospheric Music Theatre by Law Wing-fai, as well as Hong Kong Odyssey in the 45th Hong Kong Arts Festival. Other recent performances include music collaboration with the East-West Center of Hawaii and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Alexander Sitkovetsky

Alexander Sitkovetsky was born into a family with a well-established musical tradition in Moscow. His concerto debut came at the age of eight, the same year he moved to the UK to study at the Menuhin School. Lord Menuhin was his inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions, including the Bach Double Concerto, Bartók Duos at St. Jamesʼ Palace, and performing the Mendelssohn concerto under Menuhinʼs baton.

Sitkovetsky has performed with major orchestras in the UK, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Academy of St. Martinʼs in the Fields, London Mozart Players, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Moscow Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, Sitkovetsky has been featured with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia.

Sitkovetsky is a regular guest soloist in nationwide tours of the UK, including tours with the Brussels Philharmonic and St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. He has also toured as guest director with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Highlights this season include engagements with the Arctic Symphony Orchestra, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, and a return to Camerata Salzburg.

Sitkovetsky has shared the stage with leading artists, such as Julia Fischer, Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Julian Rachlin, Maxim Rysanov, Alexander Chaushian, Mischa Maisky, Natalie Clein, Eric Le Sage, Polina Leschenko and many others. He also performs regularly with the Razumovsky Ensemble and the Ensemble RARO.

Sitkovetsky was awarded first prize at the Trio di Trieste Duo Competition alongside pianist Wu Qian, with whom he subsequently embarked on a twenty-concert tour in Italy in addition to a recital at the Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall. He is a founding member of the award-winning Sitkovetsky Piano Trio, including the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Kammermusik Prize. The Trio has performed all over the UK and Europe including Alte Oper Frankfurt, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Wigmore Hall. They have recently completed a second successful tour of Australia to much critical acclaim.

Sitkovetsky was a recipient of the 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award.

Emilia Amper

Emilia Amper is one of Sweden’s most sought-after folk musicians. An expert and tradition bearer of Swedish music, especially that of her native Småland region, Amper was crowned world champion on the nyckelharpa in 2010. With her charisma, virtuosity and energy, Amper moves with ease across stylistic boundaries and touches people in venues across the world.

Amper has been an active since 1995, establishing herself as a freelance musician, singer, composer and teacher. Amper has performed many times on Swedish national TV and radio. She has toured extensively in Scandanvia and continental Europe, as well as in the UK, Ireland, China, USA, Canada, Namibia, India, Iran and Brazil with various groups, including the Emilia Amper Band, The Forbidden Orchestra, ODE, Frode Haltli's "The border woods”, Furebotten-Amper-Haltli trio and many more. She has performed with the Swiss flamenco company Flamencos en route at Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany. In addition, Amper has also appeared as a soloist with classical orchestras such as The Trondheim Soloists, Västerås Sinfonietta, Musica Vitae, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Nordica and Brandenburger Philharmonie, and with various pop, rock and jazz musicians.

Amper won the Norwegian Grammy Spellemannsprisen in 2010 for best classical album, together with the Trondheim soloists and their album In folk style, and was nominated for two American Grammy Awards. In 2013, Emilia won both Artist of the Year and the Crossover Artist of the Year at the Swedish Folk & World Music Awards. Emilia's solo debut album, Trollfågeln (The Magic Bird) was released in the same year by BIS Records, where Emilia is the sole folk artist. The album was nominated for both a Swedish Grammy, the Manifest awards and the Swedish Folk & World Music Awards. Amper’s further accolades included the prestigious NPU Prize by SKAP (Swedish Society of Songwriters, Composers and Authors) and its Nordic sister organizations, and she was named the Riksspelman ("National fiddler of the realm"). In 2016, Amper released her second solo album, Lux, which features music for nyckelharpa, voice, string ensemble and percussion.

Amper is currently touring worldwide with her various folk bands as well as making exciting projects with different classical orchestras and composing new music. Apart from a busy performance roster, Amper is also a regular teacher at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. She also teaches as guest lecturer at various other music colleges in the Nordic countries, and gives workshops and courses all over the world.

Eugene Pao

Eugene Pao is Hong Kong’s most publicly recognized jazz musician and his name is synonymous with jazz in our city.

Hong Kong first discovered its own guitar hero in the mid 1980’s when Pao returned from studies in the U.S. and began playing around town. Recognition came early from collaborations with leading international jazz musicians. Pao’s first solo album featured bassist Eddie Gomez, blues great Jimmy Witherspoon and saxophonist Michael Brecker.

Over the last three decades, Pao has established himself as Hong Kong’s premier jazz guitarist. He continues to travel the world for performances at international jazz festivals, concert halls and jazz clubs, and to take part in selected recording projects. Jazz greats with whom he has performed on stage over the years include Terumasa Hino, Bob Berg, Ulf Wakenius, Ernie Watts, Martin Taylor, James Moody, Bill Bruford, Jeff Berlin, Bobby McFerrin, Eric Marienthal, Richard Galliano, Georgie Fame, Laura Fygi and many more.

Notable appearances include the “Asian Super Guitar Project” in 2006, in which Pao teamed up with two other guitarists, Kazumi Watanabe from Japan and Jack Lee from Korea. The unique guitar trio made a record entitled Guitar Sam Guk Ji and toured around Asia throughout 2007. For two consecutive years of 2008 and 2009, Pao was invited by The Hong Kong Trade & Economic Office to perform on a nine-city European tour to promote Hong Kong as their jazz ambassador.

Since 2010, Pao has formed the Asian All Stars Power Jazz Quartet with three other top jazz musicians from Asia. From 2012 to 2016, the Quartet was invited to perform in the Singapore Jazz Festival, JAVA Jazz Festival in Jakarta and the Macau Jazz Week. The combo also toured Europe in 2014, performing at the London Jazz Festival as well as the legendary Jazz club, Jazzkeller in Frankfurt.

In addition, Pao was also featured as soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2013 and 2015. He also performed with Italian organist Alberto Marsico, Jeremy Monteiro and the Jazz Blues Brothers at the Elgar Room of the Royal Albert Hall in London, as guest performers of the 2016 London Jazz Festival.

Pao was featured him on the cover of the recent issue of Re:spect. He was also featured in the 20th anniversary issue of the Esquire magazine, as one of the 20 most influential men. As a composer, Pao has contributed music to countless TV commercials, and his film soundtracks have been nominated for best original score at the HK Film Awards. Pao has been invited by PRS guitar to join their artist endorsement program, with a signature guitar customized especially for him.

Zach Cheong

Winner of Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition 2022, Zach Cheong Hoi-leong is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under Robert McDonald with a full scholarship. He currently studies at the Juilliard School of Music, supported by the Bernard van Zuiden Music Fund (2023/24).

Recent performances include Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto with OJUEM Orchestra (Mexico City), Beethoven Triple Concerto with Greater Bay Area Youth Orchestra, touring four cities (Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, Guangzhou), Chopin E minor Concerto thrice with Macao Orchestra, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra (Philadelphia) and OJUEM Orchestra (Mexico City), Mozart Concerto K488 with Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, Tchaikovsky First and Beethoven Emperor Concertos with Macao Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has also given solo recitals at the Delaware Valley Young Musician Musicales (2022, 2023), Core Memory Music (2023), S’way Recital Series (2023) and at Curtis Institute Field Concert Hall (2023).

His awards include First Prize and the Special Excellence Prize in the 19th International Chopin Piano Competition in Asia (Japan, 2018), First Prize in the 81st Steinway and Sons International Youth Piano Competition (China, 2017), and winner of the Hilton Head International Piano Competition (US, 2017). He has performed at the 30th Macau International Music Festival, 4th Shenzhen Piano Music Festival, and appeared on South Carolina Public Radio’s “On the Keys,” Radio Television Hong Kong, and Teledifusão de Macau.

Cheong made his orchestral debut with the Macao Orchestra at age 9, and has collaborated with the Hilton Head Symphony, Macao Youth Symphony, Trondheim Soloists (Norway), Shanghai Conservatory of Music Youth Orchestra, and St. Paul’s Co-educational College Alumni Orchestra (Hong Kong). An avid chamber musician, he has performed extensively with the St. Paul’s Co-educational College Piano Quintet.

Cheong is also involved in composition, conducting, and music production. He began his piano studies at age four with Lilik Sutiono and studied at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with Professor Gabriel Kwok for eight years.

Brian Choi

Violinist Brian Choi was a 2018 winner in the Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition program. He is a recent graduate of Donald Weilerstein’s studio at the New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston, where he completed his master’s degree. During his undergraduate years at NEC, under the tutelage of Paul Biss, Choi achieved third place in the Bales Violin Competition and was awarded the loan of a fine Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume instrument.

His prizes include Hong Kong Young Musician of the Year in 2006; first prize for violin in the New York International Artists Association (NYIAA) Competition 2017; and also in the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition 2017.

He has extensive chamber music experience and has studied with renowned artists including Joel Krosnick, Laurie Smukler, Katherine Murdock, Mai Motobuchi, Yeesun Kim, Natasha Brofsky, and Vivian Weilerstein.

He has also participated in masterclasses with members of the Parker String Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, and the Szymanowski String Quartet. He attended the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival 2016, and returned for the summers of 2017 and 2019.

In 2017 he was invited to the Italian festival Paesaggi Musicali Toscani as a guest artist, performing a recital with the legendary pianist Bruno Canino. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in September 2017 in the NYIAA Competition Winners Showcase.

In 2018 Choi was the soloist with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto, and participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar with the Ceres Quartet.

Choi was invited to perform at Musicus Fest 2018, 2019 and 2020. He is also currently the guest concertmaster of Hong Kong’s Gustav Mahler Orchestra, and a substitute violinist with both the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

Shane Levesque

Canadian keyboardist Shane Levesque completed his DMA in historical performance practice and MA in musicology at Cornell University (Donald J. Grout Memorial Award), his MMus in both piano performance and pedagogy at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University (Pi Kappa Lambda), and his BMus with a double major in piano and organ performance at Brandon University (Lieutenant Governor’s Gold Medal). His principal teachers have included Malcolm Bilson, Marian Hahn, and Lawrence Jones, and he was a member of Leon Fleisher’s graduate piano seminar.

Shane has performed concerts, lecture recitals, and improvised continuo on original and replica fortepianos, harpsichords, clavichords, and organs in Canada, the United States, England, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Hungary. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Historical Performance Practices at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and he also lectures at The University of Hong Kong.

His recent collaborations include as continuoist for a Le French May programme of Rameau with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and for Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with Helmut Rilling, and as soloist in Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto with Sir James Galway and The Hong Kong City Chamber Orchestra at City Hall, broadcast on RTHK Radio 4.

His first place performance at the Canadian National Music Festival for the former Governor General of Canada was broadcast on CBC Radio 2, and he also completed a concert tour as a Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Young Artist. He is an international working group member of the Polifonia-Erasmus Network for music education, and a participant in the Association Européenne des Conservatoires (AEC) European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM), as well as its Early Music Platform. His article on the art of the improvised nineteenth-century piano prelude was published in the Dutch Tijdschrift voor Musiektheorie.

Cass Ho

Violist Cass Ho is a graduate of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where her teachers included John Rogers and the late Wong Wai-ming. Ho has toured in Europe with the Academy Symphony Orchestra and she was a winner of the Academy Concerto Competition and performed Walton’s Viola Concerto under the baton of Yuasa Takuo. Ho was also a recipient of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarship, as well as scholarships awarded by the Children’s Palace, the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation, Investec and Bloomberg.

After graduating from the Academy, Ho went on to study with Masao Kawasaki for her Master’s degree at Juilliard in New York, where she received the C.V. Starr and Louis Smadebeck Scholarships. She was a member of the New Juilliard Ensemble and took part in the Focus! Festival in 2006, where her performance was reviewed as “well-coached and superb” by the New York Sun. Ho has also worked with renowned chamber groups such as the Haydn String Quartet, the Australia String Quartet and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Ho has featured in performances for the International Society for Contemporary Music. As a member of the Dawning Quartet, she was also invited to perform in the New Generation Competitions in 2017 and 2018, presented by the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild and broadcast on RTHK Radio 4. She has also appeared as a freelance violist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Virtuosi and Opera Hong Kong. Ho made her Musicus Fest debut in 2018.

Ho is currently a faculty member of the Junior Music Department at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Wong Pui-ying

Wong Pui-ying began learning the violin at the age of four. She is now studying with world-renowned Professor Boris Kuschnir at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

In 2011, Wong attended the First International Contest for Musically Talented Chinese in Beijing and was the winner in the Western Musical Instrument category. Not only was Wong nominated to be the spokesperson for the 2013 Beijing International Youth Music Festival, but she also joined the World Chinese Musician Association as the youngest member in the same year. She continued to succeed and was the winner in the Fifth China Conservatory of Music Society National Competition, Grade 10. In 2014, Wong obtained Licentiate Diploma for violin performance, issued by Trinity College London. A year later, she was honoured to be the overall champion of the Second Hong Kong International Music Festival Competition. Wong also received First Prize in the 68th Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, violin concerto age 19 or under category and Second Prize in the 69th Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, Hong Kong Strings Scholarship category. In 2017, she won the First Prize of category A of the VII International Yampolsky Violin Competition. In May 2018, she won the First Prize of junior group of the IV Yankelevitch International Violin Competition. In Sep 2019, Wong received the Second Prize of group B of the 3rd Zhuhai Mozart International Violin Competition, the Best Chinese Repertoire Prize and a commendation by Ymission. In Jan 2020, Wong received a commendation from the Secretary for Home Affairs of Hong Kong for her outstanding achievements in international arts and cultural activities.

Wong has had the opportunities to work with various orchestras, including the New Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra, Guangxi Orchestra, Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Children’s Symphony Orchestra. Following her performance at the Hong Kong International Music Festival, Wong has been invited by Dr. German Gutierrez to perform with Texas Christian University and the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra in the US. In addition, Wong made her Musicus Society debut at Musicus Fest 2018 and was recognized as an Honorable Mention in the Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition in 2022.

Maddalena Recino

Maddalena Recino is an actress with long theatrical experience. An active actress on TV and film, Recino has worked with Federico Fellini, Lino Capolicchio, Gabriel Garcia Sanchez, Marco Tullio Giordana, Gianluca Maria Tavarelli, Marco Pontecorvo, Luciano Manuzi, Riccardo Donna, Stefano Reali, Fabio Mollo and Gabriella Rosaleva.

Recino has aspired to be an actress since a very young age. She began studying classical dance at the age of 11 and moved on to modern dance and jazz later. Recino also attended courses in Argentine tango and in 1998 she participated in a show for the Festival of dance in Rome.

Recino studied theater at Studio Fersen founded by Alessandro Fersen and participated in various workshops with Lindsay Kemp, Francesca De Sapio, Tapa Sudana, Serena Senigallia, Virgilio Sieni and Jurij Alschitz. She began her acting career with the company of Ileana Ghione, playing important roles by the greatest classical authors, such as Shakespeare, Pirandello, Goldoni, Wilde and others. She has collaborated with directors such as Edmo Fenoglio, Orazio Costa Giovangigli, Augusto Zucchi, Walter Manfre, Piero Maccarinelli, Andrea Battistini, Enzo Aronica, Giuseppe Venetucci and Antonio Latella.

Recino has a degree in philosophy and she teaches theatre. Her courses are based on training techniques aimed at the awareness of one’s own body, space and group. She has conducted various workshops and theatrical productions for children and teenagers. Her recent production was a course of bilingual theater and the closing show Romolo the Great by Dürrenmatt at the Swiss School in Rome.

Corinna Cheng

Corinna Cheng is an artist, singer and actress who speaks fluent Cantonese and English. Her parents are missionaries from New Zealand and Australia, her husband is Hong Kong Chinese, and she was born and raised in Hong Kong. She gained recognition in HK for her role in the 2013 TVB drama, Inbound Troubles. In the same year, Corinna won Second Runner-Up in the 2013 TVB artist singing competition, The Voice Of The Stars and released her debut Cantonese album.

Corinna graduated from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts 2006 majoring in Musical Theatre Dance and received The Society of APA Scholarship, Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation Scholarships (Outstanding Awards) and Sir Edward Youde Memorial Scholarship. Corinna has been filming in numerous programs in TVB since 2008. She has also appeared in many commercial advertisements, theater shows, corporate performances, charity and church events. Corinna has also worked as dancer, dance and vocal instructor, choreographer, model and emcee.

Cindy Shum

A keen performer and singer, Cindy has been on stage since age 8. She was featured in one of the leading roles in the production of Carmen, presented by the Guangzhou Opera House in 2014. From 2014 to 2016, Cindy was selected to represent the Guangzhou Opera House Children’s Chorus to participate in the Singapore International Choral Festival and World Choir Games in Sochi, Russia.

Cindy has also performed in musicals. She played the lead role of Princess Jasmine in the biennial musical production of the Chinese International School (Primary division) in 2016 and she has performed in the musical A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2017.

In 2018, Cindy was selected by CCTV to participate in Tung Sheng Chang (Youth Singing), performing the song, ‘My Pride’.

Rocky Wan

Hong Kong

12-year-old Rocky Wan started to learn Chinese painting when he was 4, which has since developed into a passion. Rocky’s painting has been featured in charity auction events. His work, entitled The Monkeys Enjoy Music, was one of the auction items at the Musicus Fundraising Gala Dinner in 2017. This is the first time Rocky created the illustration for the Children’s Concert with computer program.

Virginia Wan

Virginia Wan completed her Master’s degree in Composition at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under the guidance of Dr. Cheung Pui-shan. Prior to relocating to Hong Kong, Tsang received her Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and Theory from the University of Alberta in 2014, where she had studied composition, electronic music, orchestration and piano performance.

Tsang has participated in lessons and workshops in mainland China and overseas, including the 10-day LMCML workshop in Montreal during summer of 2017. Her composition, Free Fall into the Unknown, scored for soprano, flute, cello and improviser, was performed at Concordia University and the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec à Montréal.

Wan’s love for animals and deep respect for life has led to the creation of her multimedia composition What We Talk About When We Talk About It. The production took place in April 2018 at the HKAPA studio theatre, featuring live chamber music and drama.

Tsang Lok-yan

Tsang Lok-yan received her Bachelor of Music in Education (Contemporary Music and Performance Pedagogy) from the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) in 2018, where she studied composition with Dr. Leung Chi-hin. Tsang was a recipient of the Artistic Excellence Award (Composition) from EdUHK in 2017 and 2018.

Tsang won the third prize at the New Generation 2016, a competition hosted by the Hong Kong Composers' Guild (HKCG) and RTHK4. She was one of the three winners of the Tennessee Valley Music Festival - Young Composers' Forum 2017. Her work, Ballade Purple, was performed by the Huntsville Youth Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfónica del Mar in the summer of 2017. Her composition, Cupid and Psyche, was featured in “Match Making Concert 2018: Emerging Composers x Emerging Performers” organized by HKCG and RTHK4. Tsang has received her recent commissions from Hong Kong Composers’ Guild and Musicus Society.
Tsang is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Calvin Lai

Hong Kong

A native of Hong Kong, Calvin Lai completed his undergraduate studies in music at the Hong Kong Baptist University and further obtained a Master’s degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. A versatile broadcaster in fine music since 1997, Lai accumulated a range of experiences in all facets of fine music broadcasting at RTHK Radio 4, and produced numerous fine music programmes and cultural events for the community to great acclaim. Becoming a freelance broadcaster after 2013, he continued to be involved in numerous of radio and TV productions. His recent engagements included the host of Musical Exchange for RTHK Radio 4 in 2016 and Music Magic for RTHK DAB31 in 2017, the score advisor for the RTHK TV’s live broadcast of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Hong Kong concerts. He is also one of the coaches of the Young Fine Music DJs, a music outreach project for young people, co-presented by the Music Office and the RTHK Radio 4.

During the period of 2013 to 2015, Lai became one of the pioneer teammates in the conservation project of the Haw Par Mansion. Under the Revitalising Historic Buildings through Partnership Scheme of the HKSAR Government, the project aims to revitalise the 1930s-era Haw Par Mansion to provide a cultural environment for music study and as a heritage landmark open to the public. He also actively participates in various music education programmes. He is a regular lecturer of the music appreciation courses organised by the HKU SPACE. He joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra as the Senior Programme Manager in 2016 and worked on numerous educational projects in promoting Chinese music. In 2017, he was involved as a lecturer of Musicus Society’s outreach workshop and as the project manager in the outreach activities of the Dudamel x Beethoven, a special programme of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Lai wrote the educational materials for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s music educational programme Blossom with Music. He was also a columnist and freelance music critic at Hong Kong Economic Times and Tai Kung Pao. Additionally, he twice acted as the editor for Fine Music magazine for the RTHK Radio 4.

Mark Hui

Mark Hui received his Bachelor’s degree with First Class Honors from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and his Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Hui’s teachers include Lucie Robert, Prof. Michael Ma, Tsai Loo and the late Wong Wai -ming.

Active as a soloist, Hui has made a number of concerto appearances, including Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Academy Symphony Orchestra, as well as Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Jian Wang, Rachel Cheung and the Hong Kong Festival Orchestra. Hui has also appeared as the concertmaster of the Asian Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra.

Currently the Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Festival Orchestra, Hui has collaborated with renowned artists including Joshua Bell, Yundi Li and The King’s Singers.

Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (SKO) has held a prominent position among international orchestras in the world since its founding by the legendary conductor, Karl Münchinger, in 1945. With its combination of tradition and the spirit of discovery, the SKO has been inspiring for over 70 years.

The SKO established itself as one of the leading exponent for historically-informed performance practice, specializing in works by J.S. Bach and the Viennese classicists. The legacy was carried on by maestros Dennis Russell Davies and Michael Hofstetter. The SKO continued to champion its heritage in authentic performances with live recordings of all 107 symphonies by Joseph Haydn, and at the same time distinguished itself with critically acclaimed performances of contemporary repertoire, including specially commissioned compositions from Phillip Glass, Giya Kancheli, Siegfried Matthus, Helmut Oehring, Milko Kelemen and other notable composers. Matthias Foremny, who has been Principal Conductor since the 2013/2014 season, regularly expands the orchestra’s repertoire by rediscovering rarely-heard works from all eras and foraying into the realms of jazz and electronic in the SKO Sternstunden series. Distinguished Austrian violinist Thomas Zehetmair will take up the position as Chief Conductor from the 2019/2020 season.

In addition to ingenious leadership, the SKO has also built its outstanding reputation with a long, illustrious recording tradition, which begun in 1949 for the Decca company. Up until the present day the discography of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra comprises several hundred published recordings. From the Grand Prix du Disque awarded for its release of the complete Bradenburg Concertos in the early years, the SKO’s has been a two-time winner of the Edison Award and recipient of the Diaposon d’Or de l’annee and Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award), acknowledged for its masterly recordings of Schütz, J.S. Bach and Mozart.

The SKO has distinguished itself with innumerable remarkable performances, illuminated by incomparable line-up of soloists over the seven decades, including Jacques Thibaud, Yehudi Menuhin, Wilhelm Kempff, Julius Katchen, Arthur Grumiaux, Mstislav Rostropovich, Nathan Milstein and Leonid Kogan, among others. In recent years the orchestra has played with, among others, Rolando Villazón, Fazil Say, Daniel Müller Schott, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Julia Fischer, Ian Bostridge, François Leleux, Xavier de Maistre, Emmanuel Pahud, Martin Fröst and Gautier Capuçon and Hélène Grimaud.

Supported by the Land Baden-Wuerttemberg, the City of Stuttgart and the company Robert Bosch GmbH, the SKO was awarded the 2008 European Chamber Music Prize for its exceptional achievements by the European Cultural Foundation.

Winnie Yiu

Hong Kong born violist Winnie Yiu started learning violin at the age of 11 and later switched to viola. Yiu is currently an undergraduate at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where she studies the viola with Dr. Felix Ungar. Yiu was awarded the Breguet Trey Lee Performing Arts Scholarship by the Academy in 2018.

Yiu has performed in master classes by renowned violists, including Richard O'Neill, Brett Deubner and Lawrence Wheeler, as well as in the Orion Quartet. She has also studied with Scott Lee, Stanley Konopka, Wesley Collins, Lynne Ramsey, Steven Tenenbom, Susan Dubois, Máté Szűcs, Honggang Li. In 2018 and 2019, Yiu was granted full scholarships to participate in the Round Top Summer Festival Institute and the Kent Blossom Music Festival respectively. She has performed under the batons of maestro Carl St. Clair, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Yaniv Dinur, Michelle Merrill, Vladimir Kulenovic, Emilio Colón and Ransom Wilson, among others.

Yiu is active in performances in Hong Kong. She has taken part in concerts and productions by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong Virtuosi, Gustav Mahler Orchestra, Opera Hong Kong and the 2018 Musicus Fest. As an ensemble student, Yiu has also shared the stage with musicians from Cleveland Orchestra and the Trondheim Soloists.

Pavel Vernikov

Ukrainian violinist Pavel Vernikov has established his reputation as an international virtuoso and esteemed violin pedagogue for the past twenty years. A protégé of David Oistrach and Semyon Snitkosky, Vernikov was a winner at the ARD International Violin Competition in Munich and the “Vittorio Gui” International Violin Competition in Florence. He has appeared at such prestigious venues as the Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, La Salle Gaveau, La Scala and Santa Cecilia.

In addition to being a member of the Tchaikovsky Trio, Vernikov’s artistic partners also included Sviatoslav Richter, Maria Tipo, Christian Zimmermann, Alain Meunier, Christian Ivaldi, Elisso Virsaladze, Oleg Kagan, Andres Mustonen, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Misha Maisky, Gary Hoffman, Frans Helmerson, James Galway, Patrick Gallois and Anthony Pay and among many others. A founder of the Russian Academy of Higher Learning in Portogruaro, Vernikov was also Artistic Director of the Gubbio Summer Festival, Dubrovnik Chamber Music Festival, Eilat Chamber Music Festival. Since 2013, Vernikov has served as Artistic Director of the Sion Festival in Switzerland.

Vernikov’s laureate students include acclaimed violinists such as Nicola Benedetti, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Massimo Quarta, Fumiaki Miura, Lorenza Borrani, Fanny Clamagirand, Miki Kobayashi, Ekaterina Frolova and Rennosuke Fukuda.

Vernikov has recorded with RCA, Ondine, and Dynamic and currently plays the beautiful Guadagnini 1757 kindly loaned by family of Tibor Varga.

Jonathan Leung

Violinist Jonathan Leung was born in Hong Kong and began lessons on the violin, cello, and piano at the age of five. Some of his early teachers include Gleb Donstov, Artem Konstantinov and Hui Ling. In 2015, Leung is admitted to the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin for his undergraduate studies under the tutelage of renowned violin virtuoso Ning Feng.

Leung has participated in various masterclasses by leading violinists in Europe, including Zakhar Bron, Michael Frischenschlager, Pavel Vernikov, Mauricio Fuks, Pierre Amoyal, among others. In Hong Kong, Leung has also studied with the late Prof. Lin Yaoji, Prof. Zheng Shisheng and Prof. He Zhanhao.

Leung has toured as a soloist in the past with the Hong Kong Children's Symphony Orchestra to Austria, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. He was a winner at the Strings Open Class at the Hong Kong School's Music Festival in 2014 and made his solo debut at the Hong Kong City Hall Theatre later that year.

Leung is one of the six candidates receiving Honorable Mention in Musicus Society’s 2019 Young Artist Audition.

Chau Lok-Ping

Twin sisters Chau Lok-ping and Lok-ting gained wide recognition of their exceptional musicality and fascinating matches of sound. The South German Post remarked that “Duo Ping & Ting reacted precisely and harmonically together with a matching of sound in an unbelievable manner.”

The Duo has won top prizes at the 64th ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Dranoff International Two Pianos Competition, Fourth International Piano Duo Competition at Bialystok, San Marino International Piano Duo Competition and Grieg Á Deux International Two Piano Competition in Oslo. In addition, they were awarded the “André Hoffmann” prize for best interpretations of new music at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad International Music Festival in Switzerland. The Duo has collaborated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, New Zurich Orchestra, Bialystok Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. They were invited to music festivals worldwide including the Liesborner Chamber Music Festival in Germany, International Gedánsk Piano Duo Festival in Poland, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Joy of Music Festival in Hong Kong, Gulangyu Piano Festival in Xiamen. They are invited regularly by The Dranoff Two Pianos Foundation in Miami to work with other artists on school projects. For the 2019/20 season, the Duo will be featured in programmes dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

The Duo is also active in education and community services and was acknowledged for making outstanding contribution in international arts and culture activities by the Secretary for Home Affairs in 2009.

Chau Lok-Ting

Twin sisters Chau Lok-ping and Lok-ting gained wide recognition of their exceptional musicality and fascinating matches of sound. The South German Post remarked that “Duo Ping & Ting reacted precisely and harmonically together with a matching of sound in an unbelievable manner.”

The Duo has won top prizes at the 64th ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Dranoff International Two Pianos Competition, Fourth International Piano Duo Competition at Bialystok, San Marino International Piano Duo Competition and Grieg Á Deux International Two Piano Competition in Oslo. In addition, they were awarded the “André Hoffmann” prize for best interpretations of new music at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad International Music Festival in Switzerland. The Duo has collaborated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, New Zurich Orchestra, Bialystok Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. They were invited to music festivals worldwide including the Liesborner Chamber Music Festival in Germany, International Gedánsk Piano Duo Festival in Poland, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Joy of Music Festival in Hong Kong, Gulangyu Piano Festival in Xiamen. They are invited regularly by The Dranoff Two Pianos Foundation in Miami to work with other artists on school projects. For the 2019/20 season, the Duo will be featured in programmes dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

The Duo is also active in education and community services and was acknowledged for making outstanding contribution in international arts and culture activities by the Secretary for Home Affairs in 2009.

Sebastian Krunnies

Sebastian Krunnies has been a member of the venerated Berlin Philharmonic since 2000. He has performed under the baton of the world’s leading conductors, including the Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev and the late Claudio Abbado among many others.

Krunnies began his first viola lessons at the age of four. After studying music and medicine in Freiburg, he continued his music studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum and Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule. Prior to his engagement by the Berlin Philharmonic, Krunnies was a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. In 2012, Krunnies was invited to perform in the Solti Centenary Concert as a member of the World Orchestra for Peace.

A veteran orchestral violist, Krunnies is also a sought after chamber musician. He has appeared in music festivals in Europe and North America, most notably the Marlboro Music Festival, in which he shared the stage with illustrious artists including Mitsuko Uchida and Augustin Hadelich, among others.

Krunnies is also a member of the award-winning Trio Echnaton. The ensemble has garnered top prizes at the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition. In addition to appearing in major music festivals in Europe, the trio has also released recordings under the Coviello Classics label and toured extensively in Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia.

Tiffany Leung

Tiffany Leung is currently a third year undergraduate student at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), where she studies composition under the tutelage of Dr. Jade Yau.

Leung was influenced by her secondary school music teachers when she was in tenth grade. Upon completion of her DSE diploma, Leung decided to pursue further studies in music composition. Leung was one of the 20 candidates shortlisted for the “Sig. Tune for the HKMoA: Creative Music Programme,” organized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) in 2019. Recently, Leung is selected as a winner of the Call for Scores and participated in the artist residency program at Tai Kwun.

Dejan Lazić

Born into a musical family in Zagreb, Croatian pianist Dejan Lazić’s fresh interpretations of the repertoire have established him as one of the most unique and unusual soloists of his generation. Lazić’s live recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kirill Petrenko received the German ECHO KLASSIK Award.

A versatile musician, Lazić studied the piano, clarinet and composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His orchestral debuts in US and Europe took place in 2008 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Kirill Petrenko. In the same year, Lazić performed Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto at the Beijing Great Hall of People in a televised pre-Olympic gala concert.

Lazić has built close collaborations with some of today’s most sought after conductors including Giovanni Antonini, Iván Fischer, Andris Nelsons, Vasily Petrenko, Robert Spano, John Storgårds and Osmo Vänskä. Lazić regularly plays with leading orchestras from around the world, and enjoys a significant following in Asia touring China with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer.

Alongside his solo career, Lazić is also a passionate chamber musician and collaborates with renowned violinists Gordan Nikolic, Benjamin Schmid, Thomas Zehetmair, Richard Tognetti, cellists Pieter Wispelwey and Sol Gabetta, as well as clarinettists Martin Fröst and Andreas Ottensamer. In addition to giving recitals at prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw, Lazić has appeared in major festivals at Edinburgh, Lisbon, Gstaad (Menuhin), Verbier, Basel (Hochrhein Musikfestival), Schleswig-Holstein, Hohenems (Schubertiade), Prague and Huntington.

Lazić’s recording of the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven with cellist Pieter Wispelwey was named one of the most notable releases of the year by The New York Times. He has also released numerous critically acclaimed albums, including Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and the authentic arrangement of the composer’s Violin Concerto for piano.

Noah Bendix-Balgley

Since becoming a Laureate of the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and gathering top prizes at further international competitions, Bendix-Balgley regularly appears with leading international orchestras and in recital at the world’s finest halls. Recent and upcoming highlights include his concerto debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Camerata, Shanghai and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestras. He has also undertaken extensive recital tours throughout Europe and Asia, including performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Bonn, Wroclaw, Taipei, Tongyeong, as well as the cities of Xi’an, Shangdong, Shanghai and Jiangsu of China. Further performance highlights include concerts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Belgique, Utah Symphony, Nagoya Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Auckland Philharmonia, Apollo’s Fire Orchestra, Verbier Festival Orchestra and performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with Alisa Weilerstein and the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra.

A passionate chamber musician, Bendix-Balgley performs in several fixed ensembles including a trio with pianist Robert Levin and cellist Peter Wiley and the multi-genre septet Philharmonix featuring members of both the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras. The latter is engaged in a multi-year residency at Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Recent and upcoming chamber highlights include performances at the Bergen International Festival, Zermatt Festival, Brevard Music Festival, Seattle Music Festival, Sarasota Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Le Pont Festival in Japan.

Bendix-Balgley is also a renowned performer of traditional klezmer music, a musical style which has been part of his life since an early age. He has performed with world-renowned klezmer groups such as Brave Old World and has taught at klezmer workshops throughout Europe and the United States. In 2016, he has premiered his own klezmer violin concerto, Fidl-Fantazye, with the Pittsburgh Symphony conducted by Manfred Honeck.

Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Bendix-Balgley graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Munich Hochschule studying with Mauricio Fuks, Christoph Poppen and Ana Chumachenco. Bendix-Balgley also teaches at the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and frequently gives master classes including at his alma mater in Indiana, Morningside Music Bridge, Domaine Forget, Australian National Academy of Music and the Shanghai Orchestra Academy.

Paloma So

14-year-old Paloma So is the First-Prize winner and youngest ever participant in the history of the 8th Novosibirsk Violin Competition (Junior division). She also took home the second prize from (17 or under category) of the 13th International Wieniawski Competition for Young Violinists.

Paloma made her debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014, playing Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 5. Later that year she was invited to perform as a soloist at the G20 Gala Dinner in Australia. She was also invited to perform at the Interlaken Music Festival in Switzerland and participated in the masterclass of Prof. Zakhar Bron.

Paloma’s recent performance highlights included appearance at Opening Concert of the XIX International television contest for young musicians in Moscow and the inaugural concert of the 14th International K. Lipiński and H. Wieniawski Competition for Young Violinists. Paloma was featured as soloist Symphony Under the Stars with the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2018 and the Asian tour of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, appearing at the Esplanade, Kawasaki Concert Hall, Tokyo Suntory Hall and Taipei National Theatre in 2017. Other notable performances included performance with Maxim Vengerov and the Philharmonia Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall, and concerto performances with the London Chamber Orchestra and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra at the Cadogan Hall and Berlin Philharmonie respectively.

Paloma is currently a student at Wycombe Abbey School in the UK.

Dorian Xhoxhi

Dorian Xhoxhi has been first violinist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2010. A winner at the International Queen Sophie Charlotte Competition and the International Louise Henriette Competition in Germany, Xhoxhi was previously engaged as the Second Violin Principal at the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. He was also a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester in Berlin.

Born in Tirana to a family of musicians, Xhoxhi began studying violin with his father at the age of 6. Further studies took Xhoxhi to Munich, where he became a student of Ernő Sebestyén, followed by training at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule with Stephan Picard and Antje Weithaas.

As a devoted chamber music player, Xhoxhi is a regular member of the Philharmonic String Quartet and Berlin Baroque Soloists. He is also among the musicians of the Chamber Orchestra Vienna-Berlin, collaborating in concerts and on tour with illustrious soloists including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yuja Wong and Denis Matsuev among others.

Xhoxhi frequently appears in festivals around the world, especially in the Different Trains festival in Albania. Xhoxhi is a faculty member at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Rostock. He has also given master classes and hosted workshops in Europe, the United States and various cities in Asia including Hong Kong.

Sirius Chau

A winner of Musicus Society’s 2019 Young Artist Audition, Sirius Chau is a rising soloist and orchestral player in the UK and in Asia. Chau is a prize-winner in various international and national competitions, including the 2018 Eugene Magalif Flute Concerto International Competition in the USA. He was also the only Hong Kong candidate invited to compete in the prestigious Carl Nielsen International Flute Competition in 2019.

Chau’s recent highlights included performances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Andrew Davies, as well as English National Opera Orchestra. He has also given solo debuts at the Wigmore Hall and Bridgewater Hall respectively.

Other notable achievements include winning the Alain-Marion Scholarship at the Domaine Forget International Music Academy (Canada) where Sirius studied privately with Emmanuel Pahud and Mathieu Dufour and receiving the Best Performance Award at the Hamamatsu International Wind Instrument Academy and Festival (Japan). In addition, Chau has been awarded scholarships to receive training at the National Arts Centre (Canada), Orford Music Academy (Canada), Taipei Music Academy Festival and the Alion Baltic International Music Festival (Estonia).

Chau received his Artist Diploma in Performance and Master of Music from the Royal College of Music (RCM), under the support by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund and Drake Calleja Trust. At the RCM, he was a recipient of the Tagore Gold Medal and the Queen Mother Scholarship in 2019. He was also selected as a Young Artist of the Manchester Mid-day Concerts Series’ as well as the Tillett Trust of the UK.

Zen Hu

Zen Hu was born into a musical family in Chengdu, China. At the age of 6 she began piano lessons with her mother, and a year later violin lessons with her father, Prof. Hu Wei Min. At the age of 13, Hu won first prize at the Sichuan Violin Competition and became a Grand Prize winner at the National Chinese Violin Competition in the next year.

After finishing her studies at the Sichuan Music Conservatory, Hu was invited by Lord Menuhin to collaborate with him at the famous Menuhin Academy in Gstaad (Switzerland), where she performed and toured regularly with Camerata Lysy. In 1987, Hu joined the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra at the invitation by Sergiu Celibidache and became the youngest and the first Chinese member in the ensemble. During her tenure, Hu completed her masters and doctoral studies in violin with Ana Chumachenco at the Munich Conservatory.

Hu has appeared regularly as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of the Munich Philharmonic, Polish National Radio, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, as well as with the highly acclaimed German brass ensemble “Blechschaden” Symphony Orchestra. Hu is also as a member of Gothoni String Quartet and various chamber music groups, including the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Lucerne Festival Strings, Salzburg String Sextet and Mozarteum Ensemble Salzburg. In addition, Hu has participated at major international festivals together with award-winning pianist-composer Dejan Lazić, appearing in various parts of Europe, USA, Chile, China, Japan and Australia.

Hu is a keen advocate of contemporary music and she is especially devoted to the development of Western classical music in China. Hu has released already several CDs, including highly acclaimed recording for Channel Classics entitled “China Connection” with violinist Ning Feng. Hu currently lives in Amsterdam. She regularly gives master classes in Europe, China, and in Australia and is often invited to serve as jury member of international competitions.

Nazar Tabachyshyn

Nazar Tabachyshyn is a multi-talented performer, conductor and event organizer. As a member of the Gold Accordion Ensemble, he won First Prize in international music competitions in the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Estonia. In 2022, he performed in the production of Maria de Buenos Aires with City Contemporary Dance Company. 2023 saw his solo concert Tango in Paris with City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. A graduate of the Petro Tchaikovsky National Musical Academy of Ukraine, he has taught and conducted folk instrument orchestras at the Academy. He was also the founder and conductor of the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral Vocal Ensemble in Kyiv. Tabachyshyn has been based in Hong Kong since 2014 and founded the tango band Cafe 852 and released a well-received album, Camino de Tango, in 2017.

Lars Jakob

A native of Berlin, double bassist Lars Jakob studied with Prof. Günter Klaus at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt and attended masterclasses with Prof. Franco Petracci, renowned Italian double bass soloist and teacher.

Jakob is a laureate of the Lenzewski competition in Frankfurt. From 2003 to 2005, he was a member of the Orchestral Academy of the Bavarian State Orchestra. He was also offered a contract with the Munich Philharmonic.

Jakob has been a member of the Staatsorchester Stuttgart since 2007. He also plays in the Staatsoper and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. In 2010, Jakob founded the double bass quartet, Bassics, along with former colleagues Christopher Beuchert, Nico Karcher and Manuel Schattel. The group performs arrangements ranging from Baroque music to opera arias and jazz.

Johannes Klumpp

Born in Stuttgart, Johannes Klumpp learnt his trade under Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Gunter Kahlert in Weimar alongside viola studies. Klumpp first attracted international attention when he won second prize in the International Conducting Competition in Besançon in 2007. This was followed by further awards at a German conducting competition in 2011, in which he won both the first and special prizes. Masterclasses with renowned conductors such as Kurt Masur, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Michail Jurowski rounded off his artistic training, during which he was a scholarship-holder of the German Music Council’s conductors’ development program “Maestros of Tomorrow.”

Since the 2013/14 season, Klumpp has worked with the young musicians of the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen as its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. He was also appointed Artistic Director of the Schloss Hundisburg Summer Music Academy Festival in 2013. In addition, Klumpp has developed innovative program formats through the “ExtraKlang” series – held at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein – collaborating with such well-known German cultural figures as the publicist Roger Willemsen, the actor Rufus Beck, and the Oscar-nominated composer and pianist Hauschka.

Klumpp has performed with prominent orchestras including the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Düsseldorf Symphony, Dresdner Philharmonie, WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Munich and Nuremberg Symphonies, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and Kammerakademie Potsdam. His latest release with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the bassoonist Matthias Rácz with works by Françaix, Tomasi, Jolivet and Villa-Lobos was critically acclaimed.

Letty Poon

A native of Hong Kong, Letty Poon was trained at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). She received her master’s degree from Stony Brook University, New York, and a PhD in musicology from the University of Hong Kong. She was the recipient of a Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship.

A sought-after cellist for solo, chamber, and orchestral performances, Poon has appeared with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the cello ensemble, Cellistra. Her performance engagements have taken her to mainland China, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Italy, France, Spain, and Austria. She has also been invited to perform at the Pacific Music Festival, the Carinthian Summer Music Festival, the Pablo Casals Festival, and the Zell an der Pram Chamber Music Festival.

Poon has served as the Artistic Director of the Hong Kong International Cello Association since its establishment in 2004 to promote cello music and cello playing in Hong Kong. She is currently a cello faculty member at The HKAPA, the Hong Kong Baptist University, and the University of Hong Kong.

Stephen Hough

Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a pianist with those of composer, writer and painter. He was the first classical performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year’s Honours 2014. He is the professor at The Juilliard School, the Royal Academy of Music London, and the Royal Northern College of Music Manchester.

David Chan

David Chan is one of today's most sought-after artists, both as a violinist and a conductor. In addition to concert appearances, Chan is on the faculty of both the Juilliard School and the Mannes School of Music. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and he earned his master’s degree from the Juilliard School.

Roberto Díaz

Mr Díaz has a long and distinguished career as performer and educator and had a significant impact on American musical life. Before becoming President and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2006, he was principal viola of The Philadelphia Orchestra. His tenure at Curtis has seen the introduction of Curtis On Tour; Curtis Summerfest; the inception of classical guitar, string quartet, and conducting programs among other new initiatives. Also under his leadership, Curtis has developed lasting collaborations with music and arts institutions throughout the world.

Sarah Wedl-Wilson

Ms Wedl-Wilson became the President of the Hanns Eisler School in 2019. Born in London into a family of musicians, Wedl-Wilson played the violin before devoting herself to cultural management. She was managing director of the Camerata Salzburg and is currently the chair of the supervisory board of the Salzburg Easter Festival. From 2014-18, she was vice rector for external relations and interim president, at the Mozarteum Salzburg.

Cameristi della Scala

Founded in 1982, Cameristi della Scala was formed by musicians of the orchestra of the world famous La Scala Opera House in Milan. In addition to core repertoire of masterpieces for chamber orchestra from the eighteenth century to the present day, the Cameristi [TJ1] is dedicated to promoting and championing works by the lesser known Italian composers. Concerts by the Cameristi often feature the section leaders of La Scala orchestra as well as well-known instrumentalists and opera singers as soloists. Long-standing artistic influences from celebrated conductors associated with La Scala have contributed to the character of the Cameristi and helped define the ensemble’s distinctive Italian sound. Since 2017, maestro Wilson Hermanto was appointed as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Cameristi.

[TJ1]Abbreviated to be less wordy

Elim Chan

One of the most sought-after young conductors, Elim Chan is the Chief Conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Over the past two years, she has conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the BBC Proms, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic amongst others.

Lio Kuokman

Lio Kuokman was the top prize and audience prize winner of the third Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition in Paris, and has served as assistant conductor to music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In recent years, he has collaborated with such leading orchestras as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic and NHK Symphony Orchestra. In addition to an illustrious conducting career, Lio is also the Program Director of the Macao International Music Festival.

Wilson Ng

Wilson Ng is a prize winner at The Mahler Competition 2020, the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition 2018 and the Sir Georg Solti International Conductors' Competition 2017. He has worked with many leading European orchestras, including the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Since 2019, Wilson Ng became the Associate Conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dominic Law

Double bass player Dominic Law has appeared as principal bassist in the Juilliard Orchestra, Sarasota Music Festival Orchestra and Asian Youth Orchestra; and featured in the collaboration concert at the BBC Proms 2019 with the Royal Academy of Music.

Law has also participated in a lot of masterclasses and festivals. He was featured in master classes with Alberto Bocini, Paul Ellison, Alexander Hanna, Thomas Martin and Edgar Meyer; and also the master class with Ödön Rácz, principal bassist of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, organized by Carnegie Hall. He participated Aspen Music Festival and School, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and Wabass Institute.

Law has completed the Bachelor’s degree and is pursuing his Master’s degree at The Juilliard School. He currently studies with Timothy Cobb, and previously with Harold Robinson and Rex Surany. As a teaching fellow for the Juilliard Music Advancement Program (MAP), he has mentored the double bass section for the Juilliard MAP Orchestra and the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra. In his early age, he began his lessons with Raymond Yu; and soon enrolled in the Junior Music Programme of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and studied with Lam Ming-cheung.

Law is the recipient of a number of scholarships, include The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship, the Bernard van Zuiden Music Fund Scholarship and Bei Shan Tang Foundation Scholarship. Law has been awarded Honorable Mention of Musicus Society 2020 Young Artists Audition.

Nina Wong

Nina Wong received an Honorable Mention in Musicus Society's Young Artist Audition in 2020. As the Co-Founder and Music Director of the ANIMA Ensemble, she serves as a guest concertmaster and principal for Opera Hong Kong, Hong Kong Grand Opera, Musica Viva and City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. She also performs regularly with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta as a freelance musician, and is a member of Musicus Soloists Hong Kong.

Wong participated as leading violinist in the world premiere of the immersive opera Purity · Transcendence with Maestro Tan Dun, soloist in Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Tan Dun and the Xi'an Symphony Orchestra. In addition to winning dozens of international prizes, Wong has extensive experience perforning in international music festivals, including as a fellow artist at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Associate Concertmaster at the Marvão International Music Festival. Wong's career started at 17, when she performed Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Macao Orchestra. Then, in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, she performed the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto; and performing in renowned concert halls around the world such as Carnegie Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus and Smetana Hall in Prague.

Cherry Yeung

Hong Kong born Cherry Yeung is currently studying violin under Ida Kavafian and Arnold Steinhardt and viola under Steven Tenenbom at the Curtis Institute of Music, which she entered in 2019.

She won first prize at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition in 2018, leading to engagements with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini di Pesaro in Italy. Her other competition awards include second prize in the Juilliard Violin Concerto Competition in 2017; winner of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Concerto Competition in 2014 and 2015; second prize in the Schoenfeld International String Competition in 2013; and first prize of the Hong Kong Youth String Competition in 2009. In 2018 she was selected as Zarin Mehta Fellow in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program. Yeung was awarded Honorable Mention of Musicus Society 2020 Young Artist Audition.

Yeung has performed with the New York Philharmonic, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), New World Symphony, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C, the New Jersey Festival Orchestra; and as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra where she was awarded the loan of a fine Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin. Yeung led the orchestra in the 2020 Curtis on Tour and performed in world renowned venues including the Carnegie Hall.

She has attended the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, the Meadowmount School of Music, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar, among other festivals and programs. She has performed with Melvin Chen, Miami String Quartet, Grammy award winner William Purvis, Raman Ramakrishnan, and Wei-Yi Yang, among others. She has been featured on Radio Television Hong Kong, Kansas Public Radio, and Fox 4 Kansas City TV.

At the age of 21, Yeung won the position of Associate Principal Second Violin of the San Diego Symphony. She has performed in master classes with Nicola Benedetti, Robert Chen, Glenn Dicterow, Pamela Frank, Midori, Augustin Hadelich, Ani Kavafian, Jaime Laredo, Cho Liang Lin, Vadim Repin and Joseph Silverstein.

Yeung holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where she finished both within four years. She previously attended the HKAPA. Her former teachers include Ivan Chan and Michael Ma.

Annis Ma

Annis Ma received an Honorable Mention in Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition in 2022. She is a passionate violist from Hong Kong, currently pursuing her master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying under Misha Amory and Hsin-Yun Huang. She is the recipient of the Bernice and Howard Levinson Fellowship at Curtis and a full scholarship from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund.

Ma began learning the viola at six with Ray Tsoi and later studied with Born Lau in Hong Kong. She was named a Hong Kong Young Music Maker by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) Radio 4 in 2017 – the youngest awardee ever – and won the Grand Prize at the 5th Hong Kong International Music Festival in 2018, showcasing her exceptional artistry.

She has performed at prestigious festivals such as the Verbier Festival, Gstaad String Academy, and BIGLAKE Arts, appearing as both soloist and chamber musician. She previously served as principal violist in the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Verbier Festival Orchestra, and Colburn Orchestra, and was a member of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. Additionally, she has appeared as guest principal violist with Symphony in C.

An active chamber musician, Ma has collaborated with renowned artists including Osmo Vänskä, Teddy Abrams, Erin Keefe, Trey Lee, and Marc Coppey. In the fall of 2024, she was invited to premiere Osmo Vänskä’s Clarinet Quintet at the Curtis Institute of Music.

As a member of Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, Ma has performed worldwide. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Colburn Conservatory of Music, studying under Paul Coletti, Tatjana Masurenko, and Teng Li.

Ma currently plays on a Marten Cornelissen viola, generously on loan from the Curtis Institute of Music.

Matthew Chin

Matthew Chin undertook his bachelor’s studies at Haute École de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU) with Professor Pierre Amoyal and continued his master’s studies with the same teacher at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. He subsequently went to Paris and later pursued his second Master’s degree the Haute école de musique de Genève (hem) under Svetlin Roussev.

Chin was a prizewinner at the Internationaler Anton Rubinstein Wettbewerb 2019; the 1st CullerArts International Violin Competition; and the 8th International Arthur Grumiaux Violin Competition. He has also won violin concerto competition prizes at the Pablo Casals Festival and the Atlantic Coast International Young Soloist Competition, and the York International Chamber Music Competition. He is a Helen Porthouse Paganini Prize, Ida Carroll Prize, and Thomas Edward Wilson Scholarship winner.

Chin has been awarded Honorable Mention of Musicus Society 2020 Young Artists Audition.

International violin competitions in which Chin has recently participated include the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition 2019; the Khachaturian International Competition 2020 Violin; and the George Enescu International Competition 2020.

He appeared with the Artis Chamber Orchestra at the Pablo Casals Festival 2018, and gave recitals at both the International Holland Music Sessions Festival 2019 and the Otakar Ševčík Festival 2019, as well as performing on Swiss radio and at La Grange au Lac in Évian-les-Bains, and at the Palais des Nations Geneva. He plays regularly in the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and has been Concertmaster with the Aurora Orchestra and the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra. He recently served as Concertmaster for the Moritzburg Festival Orchestra 2020.

Chin has been awarded grants by the British Musicians Benevolent Fund, and by the Tarisio web-based auction house. He currently plays a François Pique Violin, made in 1810, kindly loaned by Tarisio.

Victor Lee

Hong Kong born Victor Lee began studying the double bass at the age of six under Edmond Cheng. He is a recent graduate of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) under the tutelage of Eddie Zong.

Competitions in which Lee has won prizes include the 59th, 66th and 67th Hong Kong Schools Music Festival; the International Double Bass Convention in Berlin, and the first Maggini International Bass Competition, Professional Adult Group. In 2018, Lee won the HKAPA Concerto Trial, and made his solo debut with the Academy Symphony Orchestra.

Lee has toured with the Asian Youth Orchestra in Europe and Asia, performing at the Lucerne Festival 2017 conducted by Matthias Bamert, and in the Young Euro Classic conducted by James Judd. He has taken masterclasses with Edicson Ruiz, Thierry Barbe and Colin Paris. He has also played with the Hong Kong Children’s Symphony Orchestra and the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of Hong Kong, and was Principal of the Diocesan Boys’ School Senior Strings.

Lee was awarded Honorable Mention of Musicus Society 2019 Young Artist Audition.

Wong Wai-yuen

Born in Hong Kong, Wong Wai-yuen is a recent music graduate of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) where she was a junior student of Miss Julie Kuok, prior to further studies under Professor Eleanor Wong.

She has given recitals in Hamburg, Beijing and Xiamen, as well as collaborating with the Hong Kong Children’s Symphony Orchestra and the Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra as a soloist. Wong performed at the 42nd Hong Kong Arts Festival, Magic Piano & The Chopin Shorts, and at the 46th Hong Kong Arts Festival, Beyond Impressionism. She also performed solo and in a trio in the Grow up with Music concert, and has performed regularly in the Musica del Cuore concerts.

Wong has won second prize in a solo piano competition at the Beijing International Music Festival and Academy; first prize in a Hong Kong Generation Next Arts music competition; second prize in the International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in Enschede, Netherlands; and the press award, audience award, and third prize in the Korea International Competition for Young Pianists.

Other awards include first prize and the Professional Grand Prize at the 75th Steinway & Sons International Youth Piano Competition in Beijing, and an invitation to perform at The International Steinway Festival held in Hamburg, Germany, representing China. She was also awarded a first prize for piano at the 65th Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales; the Asia Hong Kong Open Piano Competition; and The Asian Youth Music Competition. She won second prize in the Beijing Zhou Guangren Young Pianist Award.

Wong was awarded Honorable Mention of Musicus Society 2019 Young Artist Audition. She has been awarded a Certificate of Commendation by the Hong Kong Government for outstanding achievements in the promotion of international arts and culture activities.

Yoyo Chan

Yoyo Chan recently graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a major in Quantitative Finance and a minor in Computer Sciences. She is currently a full-time data analyst, but also an accomplished musician.

Chan took her first clarinet lesson at the age of seven, and has studied with May Yu and May Lam. She joined The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Junior Music Program in 2011, where she received general musicianship and ensemble training, as well as clarinet lessons from Anthony Wong. She was awarded a Licentiate performance diploma, with distinction, by Trinity College London at the age of 15.

At the recent Taipei International Youth Music Competition Hong Kong Region 2020, Chan was named champion in the Woodwind Open Group category, and will represent Hong Kong at the final in Taipei. She also received a first prize in Grand Prize Virtuoso 2020, Salzburg, and with it a chance to perform at Wiener Saal, Mozarteum. For the past four years, Chan has been a member of the Hong Kong University Students Union Philharmonic Orchestra, and was selected as a concerto soloist for the orchestra’s Annual Performance in 2019. Particularly interested in chamber music, she is one of the founding members of clarinet ensemble Clarinaization.

Jessica Fung

Jessica Fung is a Chinese bamboo flutist playing dizi and xiao. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in performance at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

A graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Fung holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music. She majored in dizi, and minored in vocal music and Cantonese opera. Concentrating on music research, she was awarded the Ng Tai-kong Memorial Scholarship for 2016 and 2017; the Kong Yue Kau Memorial Scholarship for 2016 and 2017; and the Yam and Pak Scholarship in Chinese Opera for 2017.

She has been awarded several prizes in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, and holds Shanghai Conservatory of Music Grade 10 and Central Conservatory of Music Performance Diploma certificates, both with distinction, from 2010 and 2011.

Fung has performed internationally with the famous Cantonese Opera performer Yuen Siu-fai; the Hong Kong Bamboo Flute Society; and the CUHK Chinese Music Ensemble. She also performs in tea house concerts featuring Cantonese Music and Naamyam.

Floro Sernande Jr.

As well as being a percussionist Floro Serenade Jr. is a virtuoso flutist, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist. He began studying music at the age of six and graduated from the Philippine High School for the Arts and the University of the Philippines College of Music.

His professional experience encompasses classical music, Afro-Latin music, and jazz. He has been a member of the Manila Symphony Orchestra, and has played with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed as a jazz artist at festivals in Hong Kong, the Philippines, China, and around Southeast Asia, and as an invited artist at Expo 2005 in Nagoya, Japan.

Serenade also performs regularly with such prominent Cantopop artists as Alan Tam, William So, Vincy Chan, Andy Hui, Eddie Ng, Kenny Bee, Gigi Leung, Hins Cheung, Coco Lee, RubberBand, The Wynners and Tai Chi.

Chow Tsz-hin

Chow Tsz-hin is a graduate at the School of Music, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), majoring in Composition and Electronic Music under the guidance of Dr. Cheung Pui Shan. He had received The Lions Music Charity Foundation Scholarship and Musicus Society Trey Lee Scholarship, and also had been an exchange student of the composition department of Seoul National University and participated in the Takefu International Composition Workshop during his study in The HKAPA.

Chow is the winner of Musicus Society 2020 Call for Scores.

Jason Liu

Born in Hong Kong, Jason Liu had studied the piano and the cello since a young age. He attained the FTCL Diploma for piano in 2009 and the Licentiate Diploma for cello in 2011. Liu attended the Junior Music Programme of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, major in Composition and Electronic Music under the tutelage of Poly Ng. His compositions were awarded in numerous compositions and performed by notable groups in Australia, Austria, Singapore, South Africa, USA and Hong Kong. Recent commissions include Synthesis for The Learners Chorus and Orchestra, and Forlorn for St. Paul’s Co-educational College Senior Mixed Voice Choir. He has been a member of CASH since 2010.

Liu is pursuing his Master in Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. He was the recipient of scholarships awarded by the Government and the University during his study. He underwent his exchange semester in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2020 Spring.

Liu is the winner of Musicus Society 2020 Call for Scores.

Jeremy Hao

Known for his versatility and sensitivity, Jeremy actively performs as a soloist and chamber musician on both violin and viola with a wide range of respected artists and orchestras. His solo debut with the Camerata Salzburg was described as “a rare, gracefully balletic account of Mozart’s Concertone” by The Strad.

An avid chamber musician, Jeremy has performed in music festivals around the world, such as the BigLake Festival and Toronto Summer Music in Canada; Thy Chamber Music Festival in Denmark; Kuhmo Chamber Music in Finland; Musicus Fest in Hong Kong; Taos School of Music and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in the United States. 

Jeremy was a winner of the 2023 Premio Amici della Musica di Verona with his duo partner León Bernsdorf, as well as the 2022 Yale Chamber Music Competition. As winner of Musicus Society’s 2020 Young Artist Audition, he has frequently performed in chamber music and string chamber orchestra concerts in Hong Kong. He has also toured in Germany and Toronto with Musicus, where he collaborated with esteemed artists such as Florian Donderer, Trey Lee and Maria Włoszczowska.

Jeremy received his Bachelor of Music Degree at the Mannes School of Music in 2017 under the tutelage of Sally Thomas and Ann Sezter. Later on, he completed his Master of Music Degree at The Juilliard School with Laurie Smukler in 2020, and graduated from his Master of Musical Arts Degree at the Yale School of Music with Syoko Aki and Ani Kavafian in 2022. Jeremy currently holds a violin position with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and performs as a member of Musicus Soloists Hong Kong.

Meilina Tsui

Award-winning composer and pianist Meilina Tsui was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She is based in Hong Kong, where she grew up and was educated.

Her works have been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Bashkortostan; the Hong Kong Philharmonic; the Kazakh State Philharmonic; the Israeli Chamber Project; the Mivos Quartet; Quartetto Indaco; the Kazakh State String Quartet; Ensemble PHACE; the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble; the Lontano Ensemble; the RTHK Chamber Soloists; and Hong Kong’s City Contemporary Dance Company, among many others.

Tsui has received commissions from the Hong Kong Government Home Affairs Bureau; the Hong Kong Arts Development Council; RTHK; the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild; the Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum; and Musicus Society.

International festivals that have featured her works include the Asian Composers League Festival (Vietnam), the Hong Kong Music Series (London); highSCORE (Italy); the Asia-Europe New Music Festival (Russia) ; Intimacy of Creativity (Hong Kong); the Kaleidoscope Concert Series (Los Angeles); the Hong Kong Contemporary Music Festival; the Vienna Summer Music Festival (Austria); and the Midwest Composers Symposium (Bloomington, Indiana).

She is a recent graduate of a DMA in Composition with Professors Bright Sheng and Michael Daugherty at the University of Michigan, USA.

Tsui was the winner of Musicus Society 2019 Call for Scores.

Angela Chan

Angela Chan Sin-ying was an Honorable Mention of Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition in 2019. She was born in Hong Kong, and started to learn the violin at the age of three from her mother. She continued her studies under Professor Michael Ma at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and Professor Vera Tsu Weiling at the middle school affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory.

Chan has taken part in numerous violin competitions, winning first prize and the Concerto Performance Award at the 8th International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists; second prize in the violin section of the Harbin International Music Competition; and Laureate at both the Michael Hill International Violin Competition and the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition.

She has appeared as a soloist with the Staatskapelle Weimar Orchestra of Germany, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the EOS Orchestra of Beijing, and the Hong Kong Symphonia. In 2016 she was chosen to tour the United States with The Curtis Chamber Orchestra as a soloist. She also joined the Curtis Symphony Orchestra on their 2017 European tour. She has given recitals in Philadelphia, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Xiamen.

Chan has performed in the Academy of the Verbier Festival, and at The Heifetz International, Music Institute where she was invited to play with famed violist Nobuko Imai.

Chan is also a founder member of the AYA Piano Trio, winner of first prize at both the WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition and the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition.

Edwin Lam

Busy freelance violist Edwin Lam was awarded the Grantham Scholarship, the HKSAR Government Scholarship, and the Y.S. Liu Foundation Scholarship before graduating with a bachelor's degree in music from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and embarking on his career as an orchestral and chamber musician.

As Viola Principal of the Asian Youth Orchestra he toured major cities around Asia in 2013 and 2014, before becoming Viola Principal at the Kent Blossom Music Festival in 2015. There he performed as Viola Principal of the Chamber Orchestra, and collaborated as a chamber musician with peers from across the United States. He has participated in masterclasses with the Endelion Quartet, the Szymanowski Quartet, the Miami Quartet and the Shanghai Quartet.

Since graduation Lam has performed under the baton of a distinguished list of conductors, including James Judd, Ken-David Masur, and Brett Mitchell, and with such noted soloists as cellist Steven Isserlis and violinists Vadim Repin, and Sarah Chang.

George Ng

George Ng has served as the principal violist of the Diocesan Boys' School's Symphony Orchestra and Senior Strings. In 2016 he toured with the Hong Kong Youth Strings, subsequently joining the Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra. In each case he was one of the youngest players in the orchestra’s history.

Ng currently studies under Born Lau and Samuel Pang, and has participated in masterclasses with Garth Knox, Juan-Miguel Hernandez, Christoph Koncz, Leo Phillips, and Kristjan Jarvi.

He has gained extensive international touring experience at an early age, performing in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria as well as in Macau and mainland China. A performance at the Musikverein in Vienna is one of the memories he particularly cherishes.

Calvin Wong

After graduating from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts where he studied with Laurent Perrin, cellist Calvin Wong took his master’s degree at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, where he studied under former Kronberg Academy Emanuel Feurmann Conservatory Artistic Director Jan Ickert.

In 2015, 2017 and 2019 he accepted invitations to take part in the Rome Chamber Music Festival, organized by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and the United States Embassy to Italy. His performances were supported by The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Brussels. He has also appeared at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival, where he won the Taras Gabora Prize. He has performed as a soloist with the Mainzer Virtuosi String Orchestra in both Germany and Italy.

As active on social media as in the concert hall, Wong has accumulated more than 60,000 online followers in mainland China, where he promotes the cello, and has performed solo recitals for his followers in Shanghai and Beijing. His album available on the streaming platform has achieved a play count of more than one million. More music will be released shortly online.

Wong was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Musicus Society 2019 Young Artists Audition.

Marc Ngan

Marc is a Hong Kong-based performer, educator and creator, specializing in musical theatre. With over 12 years of industry experience, he is highly sought-after as a performer, director, scriptwriter, corporate coach and emcee.

He has worked on projects for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Opera Hong Kong and Hong Kong International Airport, just to name a few. Marc has written two full-length Musicals, The Miracle of Music and Butterfly Lovers. In 2023, he founded Dragonesque, a theatre company dedicated to developing musical theatre in Hong Kong.

Rani Fung

Currently a Form 3 student at St. Mary’s Canossian College, at the age of just 11 Rani Fung was first runner-up in the Parsons Music Scholarship for Wind, Brass and Percussion Instruments (Open Class) in the 72nd Hong Kong Schools Music and Speech Association Festival, and was again a medal-winner in 2021 at the age of 14.

She is currently broadening her experience through participation in music festivals, masterclasses and Asian percussion competitions. She won the championship in marimba, vibraphone, and Chinese drums in the Taipei World Percussion Championship, and has also been a competition winner in Shanghai and Tokyo.

Fung has also been acquiring ensemble experience through participation in the Asian Youth Orchestra Hong Kong Music Summer Orchestra; the Academy Concert Band; Parsons Wind Orchestra; and the Hong Kong Bravissimo Wind Ensemble. She has also appeared in a pop concert as a solo vibraphonist for Justin Lo’s performance at the Hong Kong Coliseum.

Rani Fung is now studying marimba with award-winning Japanese marimbist Eriko Daimo and multi-percussion with Calvin Li.

Claudia Frisone

Based in Rome, Italy, Claudia Frisone is an actress, a dance-theatre performer, director, drama teacher and vocal coach for drama academies, public schools, private students and clients. She graduated in 1985 from the A. Fersen International Academy. Since 2002, she has also been working as an art counsellor and drama counsellor, as well as leading public speaking courses.

Fan Hiu-sing

Violinist Fan Hiu-sing was the 2021 winner of Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition. A laureate of the New York International Artists Association Violin Competition and the Verão Clássico Festival, he was one of the six semi-finalists at the 2024 George Enescu Violin Competition. Fan has established himself as one of the most promising young stars on the international concert circuit, with appearances at prestigious festivals such as the Marvão Music Academy, Verbier Festival, Verão Clássico Festival, and the Great Mountains Music Festival and School. In the 2023/24 season, he returned to the Cologne Chamber Orchestra as guest concertmaster.

Fan has had the privilege of collaborating with and receiving mentorship from such renowned artists as Leonidas Kavakos, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Vadim Repin, Itzhak Perlman, Kristóf Baráti, Ferenc Rados, Pamela Frank, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Donald Weilerstein, Aaron Rosand, Pierre Amoyal, Quatuor Ébène, and the Emerson String Quartet.

Born in Hong Kong, Fan began violin lessons at the age of four. He received the Cordelia Lee Beattie Foundation Scholarship and Betty & Daniel Bloomfield Fund Scholarship during his time at The Juilliard School, where he earned his bachelor’s degree under the tutelage of Hyo Kang and I-Hao Lee. He continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich with Julia Fischer, Christoph Poppen, Lena Neudauer, and Veronika Eberle. Currently, Fan is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music with the Eckstein Scholarship.

Elissa Lee

Toronto born violinist Elissa Lee has appeared as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Brott Music Festival Orchestra, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l‘Orchestre de Chambre de Montréal, and the Royal Conservatory Orchestra. She won first prize in the 23rd Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (Strings).

Lee studied with Victor Danchenko at the Royal Conservatory and with Lorand Fenyves at the University of Toronto, where she received a master’s degree in performance and was the recipient of the prestigious Eaton Scholarship. She then moved to Germany to study privately with Andreas Reiner in Munich and Thomas Brandis at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin where she won second prize in the Gyarfas Competition. She received two Chalmers Performing Arts Training Grants from the Ontario Arts Council, and a Canada Council Grant.

Lee has held positions as Second Concertmaster in both the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the WDR Sinfonieorchester, and is now enjoying a busy freelance career.

She has performed as Concertmaster with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchster der KlangVerwaltung in Munich, and the Lucerne Festival Strings, and in leading positions with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, and the Canadian Opera Company. She has also been a guest of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and has worked under the batons of Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink and Daniel Harding.

Lee has featured as first violinist with both the Kamareli and the Bomari String Quartets, has performed with Louie Lortie, Augustin Dumay, Anton Kuerti, Pascal Devoyon, Kevin Fitzgerald, Lawrence Lesser, and Shauna Rolston, and has been a frequent participant in Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. With pianist Jeanie Chung she won second prize at the 2001 Caltanissetta International Chamber Music Competition, and received an Honourable Mention at the Premio Vittorio Gui Competition in Florence.

In 2010 Lee joined Ensemble Made in Canada which created and toured MOSAÏQUE, a musical journey through the country which won a JUNO award for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber in 2021.

Hila Karni

Hila Karni was born in Tel Aviv and took up the cello aged nine. Only four years later she was touring Europe, Canada and the United States.

Karni’s teachers included Zvi Harel, Uzi Wiesel, David Geringas, and the legendary Bernard Greenhouse, who has described her as “one of the most musically sensitive and technically exciting cellists of the younger generation.” She received her chamber music training with Haim Taub, Ilan Gronich, and the Alban Berg Quartet.

In 2006, together with violinist Daniel Bard and pianist Ohad Ben-Ari, Karni founded the successful Trio Mondrian, winning 1st Prize, the Young Award, and the Special Prize for its interpretation of a Brahms trio at the 2007 International Chamber Music Competition in Trieste. At the 2008 Bologna Festival it received the Audience Prize, and in 2009, was awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship (London). The Italian composer Marcello Abbado dedicated a piece entitled Trio Mondrian to the ensemble. Since 2021 Karni has been a member of Trio Lirico.

She has appeared at numerous festivals - including Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein, Stresa, Kfar Blum, and Ravinia - and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Megaron Mousikis in Athens, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York. From 2013 to 2015 she taught chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.

Among her many musical partners are Boris Pergamentschikow, Guy Braunstein, Ralf Gothoni, Bernard Greenhouse, Maxim Vengerov, Nigel Kennedy and the Scharoun Ensemble. She also regularly collaborates with Israeli singer Noa. Albanian composer Dhora Leka wrote the solo piece Improvisus for her. Karni’s recordings of the Romantic Serenades and the Cello Concerto Op. 33 by Robert Volkmann with the Hamburg Camerata, and of Max Richter’s War Anthem with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, have received enthusiastic reviews.

Richard Wolfe

Richard Wolfe was born and raised in New York, where he studied violin with Mara Sebriansky and Dorothy DeLay. He graduated from the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati in the class of Walter Levin (1st violinist of the LaSalle Quartet).

After further studies in New York with Gerald Beale, Wolfe lived five years in Israel, where he became a member of the Israel Chamber Orchestra. During this period, he started to discover the beauty of the viola, and played it in an ensemble with principal players from the orchestra.

In 1982 Wolfe established himself in the Netherlands, and in 1984 he began a 35 year tenure as first principal violist of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra / Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. With these orchestras he appeared numerous times as soloist, at home and abroad. His recording of Mozart's “Sinfonia Concertante” K.364, with Gordan Nicolić and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, was released on the Tacet label in 2020.

Wolfe has been a member of chamber music ensembles with notable musicians, such as the violinist Sergiu Luca (“Music in Context”) and cellist Roel Dietiens (“Explorations”), and he and his wife, the violinist Elisabeth Perry, are core members of the Utrecht-based Rietveld Ensemble.

Wolfe is professor of viola at the Utrecht Conservatory, and he has participated in master classes and festivals in France, Germany and the United States.

Francis Chik

Francis Chik Yiu-ting is the founding violinist of Cong Quartet. The quartet was the 2021–2022 Artist-in-Residence for the Master of Arts Programme of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where they also held the role of the Ensemble-in-Residence from 2019 to 2021. In 2019, they achieved significant recognition by winning first place and the Grand Prize at the Salzburg Mozart International Chamber Competition in Tokyo. They also placed second in the Chamber Music Category at the 2021 Kreutzer International Competition and were honored with the Adolf Betti Award at the 2022 Virtuoso & Belcanto Festival Chamber Music Competition.

Chik holds a Master of Arts degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was honored with the Roth Prize for achieving the highest mark in his recital. He previously completed his Bachelor of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music, earning a Performer’s Certificate. His academic journey also included studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, under the mentorship of esteemed instructors such as Mikhail Kopelman, Hu Kun, Joseph Swensen and Ivan Chan.

He has had the privilege of learning from world-renowned quartets, including the Pacifica Quartet, Dover Quartet and Shanghai Quartet, as well as members of the Danel, Jerusalem, American, Tokyo, Juilliard, Borromeo, Vermeer, Ébène, Ysaÿe and Borodin String Quartets.

Chik actively participates in international performances, in places such as Tokyo, New York, the Netherlands, France, Australia and Singapore.

Chow Yip-wai

Chow Yip-wai graduated from the New England Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music. He is hugely inspired by his numerous mentors, including Wonhee Bae and Dimitri Murrath from Esmé Quartet, Robin Scott from Ying Quartet, along with Professors Ayano Ninomiya and Charles Castleman.

Prior to becoming the newest addition to the celebrated Romer String Quartet of Hong Kong, Chow was a member of the Montclaire String Quartet in West Virginia, US, the faculty at West Virginia State University and the prize-winning Cong Quartet in Hong Kong.

In addition to winning awards in the Brookline Symphony Concerto Competition and the MTNA Young Artists Competition. Chow was a First Prize winner in the Japan-Hong Kong International Music Competition.

Caleb Wong

Hong Kong

An active chamber musician, Caleb Wong is the violist of Cong Quartet. The quartet was the resident artist of Musique à Flaine in France in 2023 and the 2021–2022 Artist-in-Residence for the Master of Arts Programme and 2019–2021 Ensemble-in-Residence of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. With the quartet, Wong was a top prize winner in competitions such as Salzburg Mozart International Chamber Competition in Tokyo. International Music Competition Triomphe de l’Art in Brussels, & Virtuoso & Belcanto Festival Chamber Music Competition. He was also a finalist in competitions such as the Washington International Competitions as a soloist.

Wong was the violist of the Alpensia Quartet in South Korea sponsored by the Artsylvia Foundation. As an orchestral musician, he was previously a member of The Orchestra Now (TŌN) in New York, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra in Indiana and Owensboro Symphony in Kentucky. During his time in New York, Wong performed regularly in venues like the MET museum, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and recorded with labels such as Naxos and Sorel Classics. He has also performed with major orchestras, namely the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and American Symphony Orchestra.

In Hong Kong, Wong has performed with Musicus Soloists Hong Kong and served as a guest principal in several orchestras. He received his musical education in London, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Tokyo, Indiana and New York in the US. His influential mentors included Kaori Wilson, Edward Gazouleas, Kazuhide Isomura, Michael Tree, Nobuko Imai, Mara Gearman and Ivan Chan.

Cheng Yan-ho

Hong Kong

A native from Hong Kong, Cheng Yan-ho studied the cello under the tutelage of Cheung Ming-Yuen, Joliana Lai, Tung Hiu-Lo and Prof. Ray Wang. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree and the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University with a Master of Music in Cello Performance degree under the guidance of Peter Stumpf. Cheng also worked as the assistant of Susan Moses at the Indiana University String Academy and furthered his studies in quartet performance with Luc-Marie Aguera, Marc Danel, Ivan Chan and the Pacifica Quartet.

Cheng has performed extensively throughout his career as the founding cellist of Cong Quartet, which won the Adolf Betti Award of the 2022 Virtuoso & Belcanto Festival’s Chamber Music Competition in Italy, the Grand Prize in the 2019 Salzburg Mozart International Chamber Competition in Tokyo and second prize in the 2021 Kreutzer International Competition in Belgium. Cong Quartet was the 2021–2022 Artist-in-Residence for the Master of Arts Programme of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where they also held the role of the Ensemble-in-Residence from 2019 to 2021. Cheng has performed with Andrej Bielow, Jorja Fleezanis, Eric Kim, Adrien La Marca, Antonio Lysy, Mai Motobuchi, Enrico Pace, Rachell Wong and members of Quatuor Danel, among others.

Luk Wai-chun

Luk Wai-chun recently received his doctorate in composition from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he studied under Professor Lee Wan-ki Wendy. He is interested in the eclectic stylistic elements of music from across the world, and has explored many different musical idioms, his recent works being influenced by Chinese regional folk music, Chinese traditional opera, Japanese gagaku, jazz and Latin American music.

In 2019, Luk went to the University of South Florida as a visiting scholar to study jazz and conduct research into Latin American music, with fieldwork in Cuba, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. He has collaborated with many different music groups, including artists from Hong Kong, the USA, Canada, France, Brazil and Thailand.

In the course of his doctoral studies, Luk received several scholarships, including the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Scholarship, the ICS Mok Hing Cheong Postgraduate Scholarship and the Music Scholarship (Local Studies) from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund.

His Chinese instrumental composition Tan-Tiao Rock won the Gold Award (Combination of Musical Instruments of the Same Category) at the 2021 Dunhuang Awards, while his pipa solo work Jazz Pipa won the Silver Award at the 2017 Dunhuang Awards. He has also won prizes awarded by Musicus Society, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Catchfire Collective and Tacet(i) Ensemble Call for Scores.

His other compositions have been featured at the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival, the Hong Kong Contemporary Music Festival, the International Society for Contemporary Music’s World (New) Music Days 2017 (Canada) and the Intercultural Music Conference and Concerts (USA). One of his compositions, Blue Pole, recently featured at the 67th International Rostrum of Composers in Belgrade, Serbia.

Alvin Chan

Alvin Chan holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s in music from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he studied under Dr Lung Heung-wing, James Boznos and Alan Cumberland. He received full scholarships from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund, and has also been awarded the SAR Philharmonic Scholarship and the Chan Ho Choi Enchanting Music Scholarship.

Chan has been the resident percussionist of the Hong Kong Gaudeamus Dunhuang Ensemble since 2018 and has toured to Dunhuang and Quanzhou. In 2019 he co-founded the Vertex Percussion Duo and M.A.R.B.L.E.S. Percussion. The same year, he joined the Sō Percussion Summer Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, where he performed with percussionists from all over the world.

He is also an associated artist of Toolbox Percussion, with the support of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and he performed with Third Coast Percussion at the Toolbox International Creative Academy in 2020.

In 2015, Chan toured Mainland China, Taiwan and Japan as a member of the Asian Youth Orchestra and in 2017 he performed as an accompanist at the World Dance Alliance Global Summit in St John’s, Canada, with the support of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

He is also a freelance player with the Macao Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Philharmonia APA.

Kung Wai-kin

Hong Kong dizi performer Kung Wai-kin started learning the instrument at the age of eight. He later furthered his studies in dizi in Shanghai, graduating with a Master of Arts from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music under Professor Zhan Yongming, a renowned dizi performer and educator.

During his time in Shanghai, Kung learned from famous dizi masters from all over the world, and also got many opportunities for performances and exchanges, such as the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, Contemporary Music Week and the Shanghai International Art Festival. In 2018, he was invited to premiere the dizi sonata Sea Breeze and Bamboo Dream in Taipei. He has performed with the Di Sheng Fu Dizi Chamber Orchestra and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Chinese Orchestra in a number of cities. He took part in and helped organise the 5th and 6th Shanghai Conservatory of Music Chinese Traditional Wind Instrument Week series of lectures and performances. He was also recommended by the school to take part in a teaching exchange project with the Geneva Conservatory of Music in Switzerland.

Kung has won multiple awards, including the Dizi Gold Award at the West Lake International Youth Musical Instrumental Competition Higher School Professional Group and gold medal at the Dizi Professional Group in China · Wuxi 4th International Flute Festival and the “Listen to the Rain Cup” dizi professional competition. He received the Excellent Student Scholarship for three years straight from 2018 to 2000. In 2019, he was named an outstanding student by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music “Music Talent to Fly” programme and received sponsorship to give a solo recital. In 2020, he was selected for the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra to host the “Music Integrates” chamber concerts by young music makers and will give a solo dizi concert in June 2022.

Piao Xingji

Piao Xingji was born into a musical family in 1992 and started taking piano lessons at the age of four, giving his first performance two years later. He received a full scholarship to study at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under Professor Gabriel Kwok. Piao graduated with a Bachelor of Music and then a Master’s.

Piao has won numerous awards, including First Prize in Piano at the Shanghai Grand Theatre Cup (1999) and National Kawai Piano Competition (2005, China), First Prize and four special prizes at the 5th International Russian Music Piano Competition (2006, San Jose), First Prize at the 14th Hong Kong – Asia Piano Competition (Open Class, 2007), Second Prize and three special prizes at the 11th Grieg International Piano Competition in Norway (2010), Grand Prize at the HKGNA New York Debut Piano Competition (2010), and Second Prize at the 21st International Piano Competition in Italy (2011).

Piao has performed around the world, including China, the United States, Italy, Austria, Norway, Hungary and Poland. He went on a concert tour of China in 2006, and toured Austria, Poland and Hungary in 2008. After winning the top prize at the HKGNA New York Debut Piano Competition (2010), he performed at Carnegie Hall in New York. His recital at the Hong Kong Arts Festival (2013) was critically acclaimed. His performance in Pordenone in 2014 was also well-received and was given extensive coverage in the Italian media. As well as being recorded for a CD release, the concert was broadcast by Radio 3 Rai, Italy’s preeminent classical music station.

Piao co-founded the Bauhinia Trio with violinist Zheng Yang and cellist Jia Nan in 2018. The ensemble has given a number of concerts since then and has collaborated with many artists.

In 2021, Piao was invited to take part in the RTHK programme “Beethoven 32”, which featured 32 pianists associated with the The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts School of Music.

León Bernsdorf

Praised for his “technically superb and musically convincing playing” (Hamburger Abendblatt), León Bernsdorf continues to establish himself in the international classical music scene. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Bernsdorf began his journey at the piano at age 5. One year later he received a scholarship from the Hamburg Youth Music Foundation and was taught by the renowned piano pedagogue Carol Tainton. After his pre-college studies with Volker Banfield at the Hochschule Hamburg, he moved to the East Coast of the US, a place which is now his artistic home.

Bernsdorf gave his orchestra debut at age 15 in the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, performing Grieg’s piano concerto with the Hamburg Youth Symphony Orchestra. Further orchestral engagements soon followed, including the Heidelberg Philharmonic and the Hamburg Camerata. Aside from Germany and the US, he has performed concerts in Canada, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, China, and South East Asia. Through his success at the Liszt Competition in Budapest in 2016 (3rd Prize), Bernsdorf has concertized extensively in all parts of Hungary, including solo and orchestra appearances in Budpest, Eger, Miskolc and many other cities.

As a competition veteran, Bernsdorf has succeeded at both national and international contests. In 2017, he was awarded the 3rd prize at the Dallas International Piano Competition. A few months later, he won the 3rd prize at the Jaen Competition in Spain, as well as the “Rosa Sabater” Award for the best performance of a Spanish work. Bernsdorf holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees from Boston University, where he studied with Boaz Sharon and Pavel Nersessian. After finishing his Artist Diploma with John Perry and David Louie at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, he is now a fourth-year C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School in the studio of Prof. Robert McDonald. He is also working on a dissertation on the piano music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, whose piano quintet he recently recorded.

Lam Ka-ting

Hong Kong

Aurélie Entringer

Aurélie Entringer won the Concours des Jeunes Altistes de Paris and obtained her master’s degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels. In 2001, Entringer went to study at Indiana University in Bloomington (US) in the class of Atar Arad, where she obtained her soloist diploma and was named “Classic Adami Revelation” in 2004.

In chamber music, Entringer has worked with such renowned artists like Yuri Bashmet, Roberto Diaz, Paul Katz, Maurizio Fuks, Donald Weilerstein, Ilya Kaler, Miriam Fried, StanleyRitchie, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Julian Rachlin, Janine Jensen, Joshua Bell and Maxim Vengerov. Invited by the soloists of the Metropolitan Opera as part of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra from 2000 to 2010, the opportunity was given to her to play under the direction of the greatest conductors of our time such as Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Kurt Mazur, Zubin Mehta, Yuri Temirkanov, Wolfgang Sawallish, Kent Nagano, Christoph Von Dohnanyi, Emmanuel Krivine, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Paavo Järvi, Jacob Kreisberg and Bernard Haitink.

Entringer currently performs with several renowned chamber orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Les Dissonances and as solo viola of such symphony orchestras as the Sydney Symphony and the Brussels ls Philharmonic. She also plays with various contemporary music ensembles, including the lctus Ensemble, Ensemble Musique Nouvelle and Klangforum Wien. Entringer has performed in over 35 countries and plays a 1688 Hendrick Willems viola.

Lee Yat

Hong Kong violist Lee Yat received an Honorable Mention at the 2021 Musicus Young Artist Audition and is a member of Musicus Soloists Hong Kong. He has been performing extensively across Europe, the US, Asia and the Middle East in prestigious concert halls such as the Victoria Hall, Musikverein Wien, Wiener Konzerthaus, Berlin Konzerthaus, Royal Albert Hall, Opera de Monte Carlo and KKL Luzern. Lee was a semi-finalist at the Cecil Aronowitz and Oskar Nedbal international viola competitions. In 2018, he received 2nd Prize at the Kreisler Institute Competition, Vienna.

As an avid chamber musician, he has performed with eminent musicians such as Maxim Vengerov, Nobuko Imai, Liviu Prunaru, Renaud Capuçon, Antonio Lysy, among others. He has been invited to festivals such as Wien Modern, Prussia Cove, Stauffer, Pablo Casals, Gstaad Menuhin, Megeve, Bellerive, Kuhmo, Music@Menlo and Beare’s Premiere Music Festival. He has appeared on worldwide television networks, including Leman Bleu, ORF, and RTHK.

As an orchestral musician, he has appeared as principal violist with Menuhin Soloists, Klangforum Bern, the Webern Symphony Orchestra, and as guest player with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He has performed under the baton of renowned conductors such as Christoph von Dohnányi, Kirill Petrenko and Daniel Harding.

Lee studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna and the International Menuhin Music Academy with full scholarship, under the tutelage of Ivan Vukčević, Maxim Vengerov, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Wolfgang Klos, and Ulrich Schönauer. Lee is currently a student at the Manhattan School of Music, studying under Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec with full scholarship. He was also a scholarship recipient of the Dr. Martha Sobotka-Charlotte Janeczek Foundation and the Bei Shan Tang Foundation.

Lee plays a fine c.1800 John Betts viola kindly loaned to him by the PostScript Collection through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

Blues Zhang

Currently a Greendale Scholar at the Colburn Music Academy, 17-year-old Blues Zhang was born in a musical family. Following his early studies with his mother, Zhang Xi, violinist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Jeremy Williams, music director of the Yew Chung International School, Blues is now under the tutelage of Professor Martin Beaver. He will make his debut with the Musicus Society at the Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories concert in November 2022.

Zhang has won numerous awards including the winner of the Colburn Music Academy Concerto Competition, first prize in the Concerto Class, and second prize in the String Sonata Class of Hong Kong Youth Catania Music Competition and Ming Classics Online International Classical Competition. He has participated in various categories in the Hong Kong School Music Festival and won top prizes for nine consecutive years, which includes the Hong Kong Strings Scholarship for Stringed Instruments, Violin Concerto Under 19, Violin Duet Senior Category, and Junior String Quartet.

Zhang is currently the second violin principal of the Colburn Academy Virtuosi and has also served as the concertmaster of the Diocesan Boys’ School’s String Orchestra and Hong Kong Camerata Strings. Zhang was awarded a music scholarship at the Diocesan Boys’ School for three consecutive years and was the youngest member to be selected to participate in the 29th Asian Youth Orchestra. He participated in the 2021 Heifetz International Music Institute with the support of the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation. He was also selected to participate in the 2022 Meadowmount Music Festival with a full scholarship.

Zhang has collaborated with the Hong Kong Orchestra, Haw Par Music, Hong Kong String Orchestra, the Hong Kong Generation Next Arts, and the Gustav Mahler Orchestra. In 2022 April, he performed Vivaldi Double Concerto alongside cellist Angeline Kiang with the Colburn Academy Virtuosi. In 2021 June, he appeared as a soloist with the Hong Kong Youth Orchestra, performing the 1st movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. He has also performed in various masterclasses including Frank Huang, Kirill Troussov, Janoska Ensemble, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Jing Wang, Leo Phillips, Liang Chai, Richard Bamping, and Leung Kin Fung.

Zhang is a recipient of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund, which sponsors his pre-college program.

Richard Sun

Born and raised in Hong Kong, cellist Sun Hsin-hou, Richard is currently pursuing a Doctor degree in cello performance at Indiana University Bloomington in the studio of Emilio Colón.

In 2011, Sun had performed and given masterclasses on all the 12 Caprices for Solo Cello by Carlo Alfredo Piatti at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Louisiana, University of South Dakota, Dixie State University and California State University, Fresno. Festival participations including New Music Festival at Bowling Green University, Castleman Quartet Program at Fredonia and Texas Music Festival.

Sun has a passion for contemporary music; he had worked with composers such as Bright Sheng, Émile Naoumoff and Aaron Israel Levin. A passionate cello teacher, Sun is currently undergoing a project of performing and teaching all the 40 Popper High School Etudes on social media Little Red Book. He is currently playing on a great modern cello by Michael Stürzenhofecker generously on loan from the Elite Music Instrument Collection at the Jacobs School of Music. Sun is one of the member of Musicus Soloists and will be performing with Musicus Society in the Jockey Club Musicus Heritage Stories concerts and Musicus Fest 10th Anniversary concert.

Maria Włoszczowska

Polish violinist Maria Włoszczowska is recognised for her versatile musicianship, performing as soloist, director/concertmaster, and chamber musician.

Włoszczowska began the 2022/23 season with her solo debut at the BBC Proms performing Kaija Saariaho’s Vers toi qui es si loin with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Dinis Sousa. As Leader of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, she also directs a number of programmes; one of this season’s highlights includes directing and performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.

Last season, Włoszczowska gave her New York recital debut at 92NY with Jeremy Denk performing all six Bach Sonatas for violin and keyboard and they return together this season to the Lammermuir Festival.

Włoszczowska appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall and at international festivals such as Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland, Lammermuir Festival and IMS Prussia Cove das well as a residency at Yellow Barn, Vermont. Distinguished artists such as Jeremy Denk, Bengt Forsberg, and Dinis Sousa have joined her in recital and other chamber music partners have included Thomas Adès, Alasdair Beatson, Philippe Graffin, Benjamin Grosvenor, Steven Isserlis, Steven Osborne, Hyeyoon Park, Timothy Ridout, and the Doric String Quartet. This season also sees the launch of the Valo Quartet, which she leads; they make their debut appearance in Brussels under the auspices of the Festival Resonances.

Recent seasons have seen projects as a guest leader of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and solo appearances with UK and international ensembles, including symphonic and chamber orchestras in her home country of Poland. This season, Maria returns to Leipzig to appear as soloist with Reinhard Goebel and the Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum at the Gewandhaus.

Recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Emily Anderson Prize, the Hattori Foundation Senior Award and Poland's Minister of Culture and National Heritage Prize, she based herself in the UK after completing her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Hungarian violinist and conductor András Keller. In 2018 she won both First Prize and Audience Prize at the XXI Leipzig International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition.

Włoszczowska plays on a violin by Francesco Stradivari.

Eason Chan

Chan Yik-heng, Eason is the winner of Musicus Society’s Call For Scores 2022. He is a musician and composer whose work bridges genres ranging from contemporary classical, film scores and jazz to pop, R&B and indie. Having graduated in 2020 from Hong Kong Baptist University majoring in contemporary composition, Chan currently works full-time writing film music under award-winning composer Day Tai. Since 2019, he has contributed to a number of local film and TV productions, such as the hit ViuTV series Leap Day, 940920 and the films Ready or Knot, The Way We Keep Dancing, I Still Remember, and Zero to Hero, the latter two of which Chan also provided the piano arrangements for the theme songs.

Chan is active among the local jazz scene, having played in the Happy Go Lucky Big Band, Hong Kong Youth Jazz Collective and he also founded the Laminar Quarter. Chan has performed at venues such as Tai Kwun, Lau Bak Livehouse and at the Freespace Jazz Fest in 2020 and 2021.

Chan is also interested in indie and pop music. He is a collaborator on the upcoming album of local independent artist Lester Lam. Chan produced the first single off the album Shadows, which was released earlier last year.

Loo Sze-wang

Prize-winning Loo Sze-wang is the foremost sheng (Chinese mouth-organ) player of his generation in Hong Kong. He has been active both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, having been featured several times at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the contemporary music festival Musicarama and Radio Television Hong Kong. Since 1983, Loo has performed with different performing groups, including the Song Company of Australia, Xenia Ensemble of Italy, St. Lawrence String Quartet of the States, POING of Norway, Het Collectif of Brussels, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Macau Orchestra, in various countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, United States, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Singapore, Korea and China. His recent performances include the premiere of Sheng concerto Hark the Phoenix Soaring High, composed by the renowned composer Chan Hing Yan, the recital in the Cornell University, New York and the solo performance with Fulcrum point New Music project in Northwestern University, Chicago.

As a founding member of Chinese Music Virtuosi, a 6-member Chinese instrumental ensemble that performs new and traditional works, Loo has performed at the Garden Festival in Warsaw, Poland, the Melbourne Festival in Australia, Singapore Arts Festival, Buenos Aires International Music Festival in Argentina, New Vision Festival of Hong Kong, and the Chinese Composers’ Festival, among others. The group has also commissioned over a dozen new works, which include works that score for both Chinese and Western instruments.

A graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Loo’s sheng teachers included Chen De-ren and Cheng Tak-wai and he has also taken flute lessons from Timothy Wilson and Chan Kwok-chiu.

Joseph Tso

Studying science at the Baptist College (now Baptist University) in his early years, Joseph Tso is now the third generation of Yuet Tung China Works. To inherit the family business and the traditional Guangcai porcelain-painting skills, he drops out from the College and is dedicated in taking the family business to the next level. With more than 50 years of experience in porcelain painting, he is currently one of the few Guangcai porcelain masters in Hong Kong.

Martina Tso

In 2005, Martina Tso graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a first-class honors degree in Design, majoring in design culture studies and visual communication design. Tso then pursued her master of comparative literature degree at the University of Hong Kong and worked in TV production after her graduation. Aiming to inherit the family's traditional craft, she has been devoting to Guangcai porcelain-painting design in recent years. She also served as the fourth-generation successor in the Yuet Tung China Work founded by her great grandfather Tso Lui-chung with a history of nearly 100 years, hoping to inherit the traditional craft.

Musicus Soloists Hong Kong

Directed and initiated by renowned cellist Trey Lee, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong (MSHK) comprises some of the best of Hong Kong’s next-generation artists, who come together from all over the world. MSHK’s mission is to become a leading chamber ensemble representing the city on the international scene.

For several years now, Musicus Society has been promoting cross-cultural collaboration of music between leading local and international artists through performances, while nurturing the next generation of talent.

The establishment of MSHK will deepen the Society's commitment in developing the long-term artistic growth of Hong Kong’s musical talent. Through performances and collaborations with preeminent international artists in Hong Kong and abroad, MSHK gives these highly gifted young artists the opportunity to develop their leadership in ensemble and chamber music performance.

After its official launch in 2022, Musicus Soloists Hong Kong has performed overseas in Weimar and Berlin, Germany, Budapest, Hungary, and Paris, France with more performances in Hong Kong and abroad being arranged.

musicussoloistshk.org

Franchesca Wong

Karey Ho

David Chung

David Chung performs extensively on a variety of historic and modern keyboard instruments to critical acclaim in cities across Europe, North America and Asia. He has appeared in the Festival d’Ile-de-France, Geelvinck Fortepiano Festival, Cambridge Early Keyboard Festival, Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, Le French May Arts Festival and Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival, and performed in recital series of the Benton Fletcher Collection, the Cobbe Collection and the Handel House. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with such artists as Runa Baagøe, Victoria Brawn, Lorenzo Colitto, Ian Davidson, Jane Downer, Peter Hanson, Monica Huggett, Henning Kraggerud, Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, and Jari Puhakka. His recordings range across French baroque music and stylus phantasticus works by Bach and his contemporaries.

Chung received his education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Royal Academy of Music (London) and Churchill College, Cambridge. His scholarly contributions include articles and reviews in such journals as Early Music, Early Keyboard Journal, Journal of Eighteenth-Century Music, Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, Music and Letters, Revue Belge de musicologie and Revue de musicologie. His edition of unpublished keyboard arrangements of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s music is recently published by the Web Library of Seventeenth-Century Music. As teacher he has given lectures and masterclasses in institutions including the Trinity College of Music, Texas State University, UT Austin, the Central Conservatory of Beijing, the Tainan University of Technology and Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Anthony Poon

Anthony Poon was awarded an Honorable Mention in Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition 2021, and made his Musicus Fest debut in 2022. The Second Prize winner of the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition also won the Tunnell Trust Music Club Award Scheme 2022/23 , which resulted in his recital tour in Scotland in 2023. As a soloist, Poon played the first movement of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Stamford Chamber Orchestra. As an active orchestral musician, he joins orchestras throughout the UK as guest leader and section principal, including Manchester Camerata, Sinfonia Viva, English Touring Opera, Welsh National Opera and Birmingham Royal Ballet. Poon is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Li Hiu-ching

Li Hiu-ching is currently a secondary six student at the HKUGA College. Under the tutelage of Ms. Beedarn Chao. She passed the Grade eight violin examinations of the ABRSM at the age of eight, and was awarded the Associateship (ATCL), the Licentiate (LTCL), and the Fellowship (FTCL) Violin Recital Diploma by Trinity College London. Li is also a grade 8 student in Piano and Music Theory.

Li has won numerous prizes in The Hong Kong School Music Festival competitions, and has participated in some violin competitions overseas. Including the 1st runner-up of the Intermediate Category (age 13 to 18) and the Special Prize-Best Bach in Cremona International Competition for Strings 2018-Italy Cremona. The 1st prize of The OSAKA International Music Competition Hong Kong Regional in 2017. The championship (Violin Diploma Class) in the 9th HK Students Open Music Competition in 2016 and attained Champion in Violin, Viola & Cello Open Class-Junior Class of 2021 HKIMAF Competition.

Li is actively participating in international music festivals. She has joined the International Music Festival Yilan, Taiwan, Cremona International Music Academy and Festival 2018, HeifetzPEG summer program 2019. This year she participated in the Singapore Violin Festival and the Curtis Mentor Network Program 2021. She attended masterclasses by Ning Feng, Joel Smirnoff, Pierre Amoyal, Christoph Poppen, Professor Zuo Jun, Xiaoyu Yang, Mark Lakirovich, Jacob Lakirovich and Dr Solomiya Ivakhiv.

After joining the Hong Kong Children's Symphony Orchestra in 2015, she made solo appearances with the Hong Kong Children's Symphony Orchestra and has been on tours with HKCSO to Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Chui Pui-chee

Born in Hong Kong in 1980, Dr Chui apprenticed under Mr Jat See-yeu and Professor Wang Dong-ling. After graduated from Queen's College, Hong Kong in 1999, Dr Chui took his first degree at the Department of Fine Arts of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He furthered his postgraduate studies at the Department of Chinese Calligraphy of China Academy of Art, where he obtained his Master of Arts and Doctoral Degree.

Chui served as a programme coordinator at the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, CUHK and a part-time lecturer at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, CUHK and Hong Kong Baptist University. He was an Honorary Advisor of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, CUHK. He also worked in the Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy Department of China Guardian (HK) Auctions Co., Ltd. Baptist University. Chui is currently an executive member of The Jiazi Society of Calligraphy and a research fellow of Modern Calligraphy Research Center of China Academy of Art.

In 2012, Chui received the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards - Young Artist Award, presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. He also received the Award for Young Artist (Visual Arts) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2015 organised by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. He was a finalist of The Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2015, 2018 and 2020. Some of Chui’s artworks were collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology of University of Oxford and private collectors. Recent selected exhibitions: ‘Classics Remix: The Hong Kong Viewpoint’, ‘Dawn Chorus, Happen with HART’, ‘The 2020 Sovereign Asian Art Prize: Shortlisted Finalists Exhibition’ , ‘New Rhythm of Line – Contemporary Hong Kong Ink Art’, ‘City Rhymes: The Melodious Notes of Calligraphy’, ‘Nine Abysses’, ‘Eighteen’, ‘Nine Abysses-Ancient Melody’, ‘Nine Abysses – Recent Works of Chui Pui-Chee’.

Edward Vanderspar

Edward Vanderspar has been Principal Viola of the London Symphony Orchestra for the last 32 years and enjoys a busy career as a chamber musician and soloist. He has a wide concerto repertoire and has given performances and solo recitals all over the world. He is also a frequent Guest Principal with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, World Orchestra for Peace, London Chamber Orchestra and London Sinfonietta. He also serves on juries of major competitions.

Vanderspar is in great demand as a teacher and has given masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Heidelberg University, Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe and Central Conservatory of Music. He studied in London with Nannie Jamieson and Helen Dowling, and in Switzerland with Max Rostal and Rudolf Barshai.

Bradley Creswick

British violinist Bradley Creswick began his long relationship as Concertmaster of the Royal Northern Sinfonia in 1984 and has recently been appointed Leader Emeritus. His musical life then, as now, was rich and varied, providing personal highlights such as the EMI recording of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Concerto Accademico with Richard Hickox, performing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 for BBC Radio 3 and recording all the Handel Op. 6 Concerti Grossi with distinguished harpsichordist and conductor, George Malcolm.

More recent recordings include Handel Concerti Grossi Op. 3 for Naxos, co-directing six Mozart piano concertos with Imogen Cooper, Venus Blazing by Deirdre Gribbin with RTÉ, Ireland and the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola by Mozart with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Switzerland.

In 1987 Creswick moved to London to lead the Philharmonia Orchestra. He maintained his relationship with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, making guest appearances, notably as the soloist at the 1989 BBC Proms playing The Lark Ascending. His London years continued as the leader of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. In 1994, he returned to the Royal Northern Sinfonia for a second time.

Taking part twice in the Marlboro Music Festival in America, Creswick is invited regularly to guest-lead a wide range of orchestras. Playing with friends is a vibrant part of his life. He also gives many recitals across the UK.

Photo by Mark Savage

Florian Donderer

Florian Donderer demonstrates versatility as a sought-after chamber musician, soloist, concertmaster and conductor. He has collaborated with distinguished musicians like Paavo Järvi, Viktoria Mullova, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Steven Isserlis and Lars Vogt. As the first violin of the Signum Quartet, he has performed in Pierre Boulez Saal, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, with Carnegie Hall as their next debut venue in 2023.

Longstanding Concertmaster of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, he has also performed with groups such as the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Sinfonietta Riga. Appearances as conductor include Ensemble Oriol, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Kammerakademie Neuss, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim and Festival Strings Lucerne. Florian Donderer is the Artistic Director of Rottweil Musikfestival.

Donderer plays the violin built by German violinmaker Peter Greiner in 2003 and bows by Nico Plog from Antwerp.

Paul Pesthy

Born in Delaware, USA, to Hungarian parents, Paul Pesthy graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music under Jascha Brodsky and the Detmold Music Academy under Nobuko Imai. He has lived in Germany since 1990 and became the Solo Viola at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 1991. An avid chamber musician and the founding member of the Artis Piano Quartet, he has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, the Musica Reservata in Belgium and the Affinis Music Festival in Japan. He has performed as a soloist with various orchestras, playing viola concertos by Bartók, Bruch (double concerto), Telemann and Britten, as well as Styx for viola, mixed choir and orchestra by Giya Kancheli. Paul Pesthy has been the Solo Viola of the SWR Symphony Orchestra since 1995.

Yehjin Chun

Born in South Korea in 1992, Yehjin Chun started playing the cello at the age of five. She studied with Konstantin Heidrich from 2009 and continued her master’s degree with Jens Peter Maintz at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Since 2019, she has studied with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Liszt School of Music Weimar.

Winners of multiple competitions, including the Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival Competition, the Summit Music Festival Concerto Competition in New York and the Asia Youth Competition in Singapore, Chun became the finalist in the Isang Yun Competition and was awarded the Seong-Yawng Park Special Prize in 2018. She has appeared at the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and performed at Bellevue Palace with the Mainardi Cello Quartet in front of the then President of Germany, Christian Wulff, in 2011.

Chun plays the cello made by Giovanni Grancino in 1705.

Peter Benz

Peter Benz studied Architecture at the University of Kaiserslautern and the Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany, where he received his final degree in 1998. His diverse academic background had enabled him to open and run a successful exhibition and graphic design practice after leaving university. In 2001 he joined the Media Faculty (Media Events) of the Bauhaus-University. Between 2006 and 2023, he held teaching and administrative positions at the Academy of Visual Arts of Baptist University Hong Kong, as Assistant then Associate Professor and Associate Director (Teaching & Learning). Benz was appointed President of Bauhaus University in March 2023.

Konstantin Pfiz

Konstantin Pfiz has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as Munich Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Mozart. As a member of the Clemente Piano Trio since 1994, he has toured internationally with the award-winning ensemble (Munich ARD Competition) and appeared in prestigious venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Principal Cellist credits include the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (2014-2017), Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Bernard Haitink and Mstislav Rostropovich.

Camerata Salzburg

Camerata Salzburg is an internationally leading chamber orchestra, and has been regularly invited to the most prestigious venues, from New York to Beijing. The Camerata has joined the Salzburg Festival and Mozart Week as a core ensemble since 1956, and their subscription series in the Great Hall of the International Mozarteum Foundation is a pillar of Salzburg’s musical life.

Highlights in recent years include appearances at the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms in London, Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Beijing Music Festival and Carnegie Hall in New York. Prominent musician partners have included Anne-Sophie Mutter, Matthias Goerne, Fazıl Say, Renaud Capuçon and Yuja Wang. Most recently, violinist Janine Jansen and pianist Hélène Grimaud are featured as the Camerata’s artistic partners in the 2023/24 season.

Kenneth Li

Out of boredom, Kenneth Li studied jazz, samba percussion and composition in the UK, where he opened doors to shadow masters like Barak Schmool, Mark Lockheart and Trish Clowes, and took ample stages including the London Jazz Festival, Vortex, Kansas Smitty’s, the Barbican Centre and more all over the country. With his return to Hong Kong, Li has brought with him his psychedelic, genre-blending modern music, his EP <Hey.> written during his UK-bound days, his commitment to joining local neo-chamber ensemble “Sea Island and Ferry” and establishing Korvi Quartet, the only jazz string quartet in Hong Kong, and went on to pursue a doctoral degree in composition at the Chinese University of Hong Kong under the supervision of Professor Wendy Lee to extend his adventure in the musical world.

Aaron Chan

Aaron Chan was the winner of Musicus Society’s 2023 Young Artist Audition, recognized for his “calm, affectionate and continuous cantabile performance that has far exceeded the level of playing of his contemporaries”.

A two-time Sylva Gelber Award recipient, Aaron received Bachelor of Music with Stephen Rose and Jinjoo Cho at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. He then continued his master’s degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music under the guidance of Paul Kantor. Aaron was the winner of the concerto competitions at CIM and Rice respectively. During the 2022/23 season, Aaron was a resident of the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Aaron especially loves playing chamber music, finding total joy in communicating with other musicians through sound alone. He has spent summers at the McGill International String Quartet Academy, the ENCORE Chamber Music festival in Cleveland and at the Verbier Festival's Soloist and Chamber Music Academy in Switzerland.

Gregory Ahss

Israeli violinist Gregory Ahss made his solo debut under Claudio Abbado and Orchestra Mozart Bologna. He went on to perform regularly with Abbado, who appointed him Concertmaster of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

His recording of Haydn’s Symphony Concertante with Orchestra Mozart under the baton of Claudio Abbado has won numerous prestigious awards, including the Best Concerto of the Year (2015) by the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).

As a soloist, Ahss also appeared with such conductors as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Teodor Currentzis, Daniel Blendulf and Andrés Orozco-Estrada, with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Mozart Bologna, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra and Camerata Salzburg.

Ahss is regularly invited to take part in educational projects and masterclasses at Villa Musica, Mozarteum University Salzburg, Maastricht Conservatory, Australian National Academy of Music, Orchestrzentrum Dortmund, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Hochschule Luzern and El Sistema Venezuela. He is also a jury member at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and Sendai International Music competitions.

Among his chamber music partners are Natalia Gutman, Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, James Ehnes, Lawrence Power, Emmanuel Pahud, Gautier Capuçon, Nicolas Altstaed, Sabine Meyer, Alexander Melnikov and Fazıl Say. He also performed as a violin duo partner with Pinchas Zukerman.

Ahss has appeared as guest director with such notable ensembles as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Mozart Bologna, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, leading repertoires ranging from chamber symphonies to full symphonic literature from the violin.

Ahss started his education in his native Moscow, at the Gnessin School of Music. He continued his studies with Lena Mazor and Irina Svetlova at the Israel Conservatory, Tel-Aviv Music Academy and later at the New England Conservatory in Boston in the class of Donald Weilerstein.

He previously held the position of Concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and is currently Concertmaster of Camerata Salzburg, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

Louis Lortie

For over three decades, French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has continued to build a reputation as one of the world’s most versatile pianists; he extends his interpretative voice across a broad spectrum of repertoire, and his performances and award-winning recordings attest to his remarkable musical range.

In demand on five continents, Lortie has established long-term partnerships with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Dresden Philharmonic in Europe, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, St Louis Symphony and New Jersey Symphony in the US. In his native Canada he regularly performs with the major orchestras in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary. Further afield, collaborations include the Shanghai Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and the Adelaide and Sydney Symphony Orchestras and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil. Regular partnerships with conductors include, among others, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Edward Gardner, Sir Andrew Davis, Jaap van Zweden, Simone Young, Antoni Wit and Thierry Fischer.

In recital and chamber music, Louis Lortie appears in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals, including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall, the Beethovenfest Bonn and Liszt Festival Raiding. Recent special projects have included performances of Liszt’s complete Années de Pèlerinage in one evening and a complete Beethoven sonata cycle filmed at Salle Bourgie in Montreal and broadcast on Medici TV in 2021. Together with fellow pianist Hélène Mercier, as the Lortie-Mercier duo, he has also shed new light on the repertoire for four hands and two pianos both in the concert hall and on several best-selling recordings.

A prolific recording artist, Louis Lortie’s 30-year relationship with Chandos Records has produced a catalogue of over 45 recordings on the label, covering repertoire from Mozart to Stravinsky, including a complete Beethoven sonata cycle and the complete Années de pèlerinage by Lizst, which was named as one of the top ten recordings of 2012 by The New Yorker. His recording of the Lutosławski Piano Concerto with Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra received high praise, as have his Chopin recordings. In duo with Hélène Mercier, he recorded Carnival of the Animals with Neeme Järvi and the Bergen Philharmonic and Vaughan-Williams’ Concerto for Two Pianos as well as Rachmaninov’s complete works for two pianos. Their latest album presenting four-hands and two piano works by Debussy was released in September 2022. Other recent recording projects include the five Saint-Saëns piano concertos with Edward Gardner and BBC Philharmonic, solo piano works by Fauré and the complete works of Chopin with volume no.7 released in August 2022. He has also recorded two acclaimed CDs with violinist Augustin Dumay for Onyx Classics.

Louis Lortie was Master in Residence at The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel of Brussels from 2017 until 2022; he continues to mentor exceptionally talented pianists, introducing the new generation in series recently including a Beethoven/Liszt symphony cycle at Wigmore Hall and Dresden International Festival as well as Scriabin Marathon at LacMus and Bolzano Bozen Festivals.

During his formative years in Montreal, Louis Lortie studied with Yvonne Hubert (a pupil of the legendary Alfred Cortot), later in Vienna, with Beethoven specialist Dieter Weber, and subsequently with Schnabel disciple Leon Fleisher. In 1984, he won First Prize in the Busoni Competition and the same year he was a prize-winner at the Leeds Competition. Louis Lortie is co-founder and Artistic Director of the LacMus International Festival on Lake Como, taking place annually every July since 2017.

Gernot Süßmuth

Germany

Martin Smith

Martin Smith, born in Sydney, Australia, studied at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole with Natalia Gutman and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with Eberhard Feltz. Smith has appeared as soloist throughout Europe, including recent performances with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lyon, the Leipzig Philharmonic, the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Kammersolisten and the RTS Symphony Orchestra Belgrade. Smith has collaborated with musicians including Kolja Blacher, Leon Fleisher, Midori Goto, Yo-Yo Ma, Menahem Pressler, Heinrich Schiff and Tabea Zimmerman, and continues to work closely with leading composers including John Adams, Thomas Adès, Mats Larsson Gothe, György Kurtág and Salvatore Sciarrino.

As guest principal cellist, Smith has performed and toured with the Bavarian State Opera, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Opera Stockholm, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.

Smith has appeared at leading festivals including the Ravinia Festival, the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, the Pablo Casals Prades and the IMS Prussia Cove Festival. He has also been honoured with numerous awards including the ECHO Klassik, the Australian Music Foundation and the KPO Young Performer of the Year award.

Photo by Neda Navaee

Kwong Po-ki

Kwong Po-ki graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a master’s degree with distinction. She is now an Executive Committee member of the Hong Kong Yangqin Association. She performed as soloist during the 2019 Canada tour of Hong Kong Juvenile and Youth Chinese Classical Orchestra in collaboration with the Toronto Chinese Orchestra and also with HKAPA Academy Chinese Orchestra Gala Concert (2022). Kwong was recently awarded the Gold Medal at the 5th Chinese Yangqin Art Festival (youth category group) and Gold Medal at the 1st China Dulcimer Elite Competition (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Professional Group A). One of RTHK’s Young Music Makers, she is now a freelance musician for Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble and a part-time yangqin teacher at the Hong Kong Music Office.

Natalie Lo

Harpist Natalie Lo entered the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts at 16 as a Bachelor of Music (Honors) Degree student and is now studying with Ann Huang, the harp principal of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. She is the recipient of the Hong Kong Academy For Performing Arts Scholarship and will be graduating in 2024.

As an active performer, Lo has performed locally and abroad.  In 2019, she performed in the Scuola Italiana D’Archi festival recital in Italy; in 2022, she was invited to perform at the prestigious USA International Harp Competition as one of the Stars of Tomorrow performers. She then participated in the 14th World Harp Congress Focus on Youth concert in Cardiff. She was chosen in 2023 by the HKAPA School of Music to perform the Glière Harp Concerto alongside the HKAPA Academy Symphony Orchestra as one of the Concerto winners. 

She has participated and won various international harp competitions, including 1st place in the 2013 Concours Français de la Harpe, 3rd place in the 18th Osaka International Music Competition 2017, and the Winner in the 4th Hong Kong International Music Competition 2017 (Junior Division). In 2020, Lo won the Gold Medal in the 5th Hong Kong International Harp Competition (Division F), participated in the 28th World Music Competition, and won the national prize. In 2022, Lo has been awarded 5th place at the Korea International Harp Competition, Youth Division.

Lo has taken part in private lessons and masterclasses of world-class harpists, including Isabelle Moretti, Isabelle Perrin, Judy Loman, Emmanuel Ceysson, Maria Luisa Rayan, Catherine Michel, Natalia Shameyeva, Naoko Yoshino, Sivan Magen, Sylvain Blassel, Moya Wright, etc. In 2021, Lo got selected to play in the MET Orchestra Musicians Masterclasses under Mariko Anraku.

Lo appears in "Musicus Fest 2023 – Family Concert: Marco Polo's Musical Encounter of East and West" with kind permission from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Sang-Jin Kim

Korea

“[A] poised, appealing performer with rock-solid technique, warm, powerful, variable tone and a simple, direct expressiveness.” (Strings Magazine)

Critically acclaimed violist Sang-Jin Kim has won several international solo and chamber music competitions. He travels throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, giving more than 70 performances a year. Recent engagements include appearances at the Paris Salle Gaveau, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, 92nd Y, Kennedy Center, Ravinia and Schoenberg Hall, among others. He was invited to the Marlboro, Aspen and Musicmountain, Rheingau, Villa Musica and Mach-art, Prague Spring, Cervo festivals and the international Musician's Seminar at Prussia Cove.

A former member of the International Sejong Soloists, Kumho Asiana String Quartet and M.I.K. Ensemble, Kim is frequently invited as a soloist with major symphony orchestras in Korea. He has also released more than twenty albums, including his own compositions. Upon receiving the Presidential Award in 2001, the highest civilian award in Korea, he was subsequently designated as an Ambassador of Culture in honor of his achievements.

Kim studied at the Cologne Musik Hochschule in Germany with Rainer Moog and with Samuel Rhodes at the Juilliard School. He is now a Professor of Viola Performance at Yonsei University in Seoul and the Music Director and Conductor of the Seoul Chamber Orchestra.

Lawrence Wong

Violist Lawrence Wong received an Honorable Mention in Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition in 2023. He performs frequently in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings. Born in Hong Kong, Wong grew up studying music both privately and in school. He has played in school orchestras and as soloist and principal violist on multiple occasions. At the age of 14, Wong was featured as a soloist with the Wien Residenz Orchestra.

In 2016, Wong began his undergraduate degree at the New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston, under the tutelage of Marcus Thompson. An avid chamber musician, he has performed with the Chestnut Trio in Hong Kong and is one of the founding members of the Blanche Quartet, an NEC Honors Quartet (2019/20). Through winning the award, Wong toured around the greater Boston area and gained more performance opportunities. He has also studied chamber music with world renowned figures such as David Finckel, Joseph Lin, Merry Peckham, Mai Motobuchi, and Soovin Kim. As an advocate for the performing arts, Wong strives to reach more audiences along with his quartet, who aim to share their knowledge on performing arts appreciation.

Wong has performed with various orchestras and conductors, including NEC’s Philharmonic Orchestra with Hugh Wolff, the Juilliard Orchestra with David Chen and David Robertson, the Moscow Players with Yuri Bashmet, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Finnish Tapiola Sinfonietta, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also been involved in the NEC Baroque Ensemble since 2018, and performed with Ouyang Nana during his studies in Boston. In 2022, he graduated with his master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied under Carol Rodland.

Martin Funda

Martin Funda (born 1985) has been a Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart (HMDK) since the winter semester of 2018/19.

Funda combines tradition with modern relevance, consistently proving how stimulating a multi-faceted and varied career can be and how it can bring about great musical flexibility, whether as a soloist, guest concertmaster, play-lead musician, artistic director or pedagogue. Chamber music remains, however, his core focus, primarily as the leader of the Armida Quartett. It is this form of music-making that he always draws inspiration from, in order to communicate effectively with other musicians and to establish the place of music in other settings.

As a professor, he sees it as a key priority to pass on to young musicians the necessary knowledge and skills required for a versatile musical career and to support them on the path to becoming individual and self-reliant musicians.

Funda is a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist and pedagogue. He achieved international acclaim as a founding member and leader of the Armida Quartett. After winning the Concours de Genève in 2011, they were awarded the First Prize, the Audience Prize and six further special prizes at the 2012 ARD International Music Competition. This established the Armida Quartett as one of the most sought-after quartets worldwide. The Armida Quartett is the artistic consultant for the new edition of the complete Mozart String Quartets by the publisher G. Henle. This edition was presented by the quartet in a new complete recording of the works in 2021. Their fingerings and bowings are available in the G. Henle app.

He also works as a Guest Concertmaster with Deutsche Oper Berlin, NDR Radio Philharmonie, Basque National Orchestra, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Berliner Barocksolisten and Kölner Kammerorchester. As a soloist, Martin Funda performs with a variety of German orchestras conducted by Gabriel Feltz, Bruno Weil and Niklas Willén, among others.

Photo by Felix Broede

Marco Lee

First Runner-up at the 2021 London Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, Marco Lee Man-hon was selected to perform at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in 2018. He has collaborated with such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta. He completed his Bachelor of Music degree at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under the tutelage of Zong Xiaoqian and graduated from the Master of Music program of the Royal Academy of Music, majoring in double bass under Graham Mitchell and minoring in conducting, supported by the ABRSM Scholarship. He has recently joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra as a Bass Gehu (double bass) player.

English Chamber Orchestra

“One of the world’s greatest ‘living’ orchestras” Classical Public Radio, USA

The English Chamber Orchestra has been performing across the UK and globally for over 60 years and is the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world. From its beginning, the ECO has worked consistently with the most significant musical figures in classical music starting in 1960 with its first patron Benjamin Britten. The ECO celebrates and builds upon its tradition of maintaining the highest international musical standards, nurturing new talent and focusing on the “best of British” music and musicianship.

As well as its work with Benjamin Britten, the orchestra has toured the UK and abroad with artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Dame Janet Baker, Sir Colin Davis, Placido Domingo, Jacqueline du Pre, Kiri te Kanawa, Yehudi Menuhin, Luciano Pavarotti, Murray Perahia, Itzhak Perlman, André Previn, Karl Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Georg Solti, Mitsuko Uchida, Maxim Vengerov and Pinchas Zukerman.

Recent tours have included Bermuda, USA, Mexico, Finland, France, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Austria and Bulgaria, as well as concerts across the UK and at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Kings Place and Cadogan Hall.

HRH The former Prince of Wales has been the Patron of the ECO since 1977 and the orchestra has performed at many high profile and private Royal occasions including the first concert ever to be broadcast from Buckingham Palace. The orchestra has also recorded many successful film soundtracks including Dario Marianelli’s prize-winning scores for Atonement and Pride and Prejudice.

The ECO is proud of its outreach programme, Close Encounters, which works on musical and performance collaborations with communities and schools around the UK and abroad. In 2019, the ECO became the Professional Orchestra in Partnership at Christ’s Hospital School in West Sussex, a collaboration involving side-by-side performance and one-to-one tuition. In 2022, the orchestra delivered some exciting and far-reaching projects including The Thames Music Makers project in conjunction with Hammersmith & Fulham Council at Riverside Studios, and in 2023, the Windrush Project welcomed children from various schools at the London Transport Museum.

The future promises a further expansion of the programme, bringing musical experiences to widen the orchestra’s community reach.

The ECO recently announced the appointments of Roberto Forés Veses as Principal Guest Conductor and Stephanie Gonley as Leader and Principal of the orchestra.

Future plans include touring projects in Turkey, Austria, Slovenia, Hong Kong and Germany in the next few months.

Photo by Keith Saunders

Phoebe Hui

Phoebe Hui is an artist, researcher and art educator based in Hong Kong, China. Her research-based art practice explores how technology transforms our perception of reality. Her recent research focuses on ideas drawn from the philosophy of science, language, and machine learning. She has worked with an array of media, including robotics, kinetic sculpture, installation, sound, print, and drawings.

Hui received her MFA at UCLA Design Media Art, her MA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and her BA in Creative Media from City University of Hong Kong. Hui is devoted to art education and was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award in 2019. She has presented her research-based art practice and papers globally at such venues as Ars Electronica, ISEA, the MIT Media Lab, Asian Contemporary Art Week, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Chinese Culture Center, Tokyo Experimental Sound and Art Festival, Hong Kong Palace Museum, Tai Kwun, Chi Art Space – K11 Art Foundation.

Hui is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including Artist of the Year (Media Arts) (2022) and Young Artist of the Year (Media Arts) (2012) from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the Altius Fellowship, and the United States-Japan Arts Program Fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council. Further accolades include the HKETO Yale-China Art Fellowship, which enabled her to conduct research and exhibit her works at Yale University. She is also the recipient of the Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award, the Hong Kong Art Development Council Art Scholarship and the Hong Kong Design Association Design Student Scholarship. In 2019, she was selected to imagine the 5th Audemars Piguet Art Commission. Hui's work, The Moon Is Leaving Us, marked the first Audemars Piguet Art Commission to be shown in Asia and she was the first female artist awardee in Asia.

Photo is provided by The Alumni Relations Office of City University of Hong Kong

John Mills

John Mills studied at the Royal College of Music as a scholar under Professor Rodney Friend, one of the great concertmasters.  

Mills is leader of the Sinfonia of London under John Wilson, with whom he has released 17 highly acclaimed records. John is also a leader of the English Chamber Orchestra. He works as a guest leader with groups including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and others.  

Mills is best known as a chamber musician for 22 years with the highly acclaimed Tippett Quartet; performing and broadcasting across the UK and worldwide. They have recorded extensively, releasing over 50 discs with the quartet for EMI, Decca, Somm, Naxos, Signum, Classic FM and others. 

Mills has a fine reputation as a soloist, appearing with the English Chamber Orchestra and performing double concerti with Maxim Vengerov, and with Stephanie Gonley around the UK and abroad. Over the last 10 years Mills has been performing and broadcasting the major violin repertoire worldwide, including performances at the Liszt Hall in Budapest and concerts across New Zealand. Other recent performances include Brahms and Elgar concerti, Erollyn Wallen’s Concerto Grosso with the Refugee Orchestra project and Bach with the English Chamber Orchestra around the UK.

Mills is a regular orchestra leader in commercial music. His studio work includes leading soundtrack sessions for The Batman, Jurassic World, Nightmare Alley, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins Returns, The Little Mermaid, Matilda, and Marvel’s Doctor Strange.  He has worked closely with composers including Michael Giachinno, Marc Shaiman and Alan Menken. The Tippett Quartet is heavily featured on the soundtrack for the movies Knives Out and Glass Onion by director Rian Johnson. 

Mills plays on a c.1720 violin by Francesco Goffriller of Venice.

Barnabás Kelemen

Hungary

Violinist Barnabás Kelemen has conquered the most famous concert halls in the world with his virtuoso technique and dynamic, passionate playing style. Versatile and open-minded, he is an outstanding soloist and chamber musician, an artistic director of festivals, and a teacher at renowned institutions.

A frequent guest of the world’s eminent ensembles, Kelemen performs Early Baroque, Classical, and Romantic works with just as much authenticity as twentieth-century pieces. He is additionally a devoted advocate of contemporary music, with world or Hungarian premieres of works by Kurtág, Ligeti, Schnittke, Gubajdulina, Steve Reich, and Ryan Wigglesworth to his name.

He regularly performs at the world’s most prominent concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Royal Festival Hall, the Palais de Beaux Arts, Suntory Hall, and the Berliner Philharmonie. In addition to working with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Kelemen has worked with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Jurowski, Michael Stern, Zoltán Kocsis, Péter Eötvös, and Iván Fischer. He is also an avid conductor himself – in recent seasons, he has directed the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Ensemble, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, and the symphonic orchestras of the Hungarian cities of Szombathely, Győr, and Pécs.

Kelemen recorded all of Bartók’s works for violin under the aegis of Zoltán Kocsis. The Sonatas for Violin and Piano Nos 1 and 2 (featuring Kocsis) and Sonata for Solo Violin, won him the Gramophone Award. Other accolades included the Grand Prix du Disque by the International Liszt Society for his album of Liszt’s complete works for violin and piano with Gergely Bogányi and the Diapason d’Or for Brahms’ Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Tamás Vásáry.

He is also a sensitive and experienced chamber musician. Together with Katalin Kokas, he is the founder and artistic director of Festival Academy Budapest, a chamber music festival which regularly features artists such as Vilde Frang, Maxim Rysanov, Shlomo Mintz, and Joshua Bell.

Kelemen is the holder of the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. He performs on the “ex-Dénes Kovács” Guarneri del Gesú violin of 1742, generously loaned to him by the Hungarian State.

Photo by László Emmer

Katalin Kokas

Hungary

Violin and viola virtuoso Katalin Kokas is one of the most outstanding figures in Hungary in the field of classical music. Solo concerts, chamber music, and teaching all play prominent roles in her life.

Kokas has worked with such illustrious artists as Zoltán Kocsis, Miklós Perényi, Michael Stern, Pekka Kuusisto, and the Chilingirian Quartet. Among many others, she has played with the Bratislava Chamber Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Ensemble, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, and orchestras from Asia, Europe, North and South America, and South Africa.

A founding member of the Kelemen Quartet, she has performed with the quartet with such major musicians as Joshua Bell, Ferenc Rados, and József Lendvai. In 2011, they were awarded first prize at the Fourth Beijing International Music Competition for string quartets and second prize, Audience Prize, and the Musica Viva Prize at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, which assured the ensemble concerts in Australia for years to come. Recent engagements include the Lockenhaus Festival and the Berliner Philharmonie for a debut performance and recording session, debuts at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and London’s Wigmore Hall, a three-week tour in Australia and China, as well as appearances at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussels’ Palais de Beaux Arts, and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Her first prize accolades include the Semmering Bartók Violin Competition (1997), the Martinu Foundation Violin Competition (1998), the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition (1999), and the International József Szigeti Violin Competition (2002).

Her discography highlights include DVDs of live performances of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante (viola) and Concertone (second violin) with Barnabás Kelemen and Ferenc Erkel Chamber Orchestra, and Bartók New Series – 44 Duos for Two Violins, Divertimento, and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (second violin solo) with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra at the invitation of Zoltán Kocsis.

Kokas has been an associate professor at the Liszt Academy of Music since 2004. She plays a 1698 Testore violin loaned to her by the Hungarian State and an 1863 Luigi Fabris viola.

Photo by László Emmer

Sinfonia Varsovia

Sinfonia Varsovia has been an ambassador of Polish musical culture since its inception. Its international travels include thousands of meetings with conductors, composers, soloists, and finally – audiences. For nearly 40 years, the Orchestra has been a regular guest on foreign and domestic stages, providing listeners with an unforgettable musical experience.

The ensemble continues the tradition of the Polish Chamber Orchestra (PCO) founded in 1972 from which it evolved as new members came on. The impulse for expansion was provided in 1984 by the arrival of the legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin who took over as the first guest conductor. “Working with no other orchestra gave me as much satisfaction as my work, as soloist and conductor, with Sinfonia Varsovia”, he said in interviews.

Soon after Sinfonia Varsovia began its world tour, performing in the world's most prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (Paris), Barbican Centre (London), Wiener Musikverein (Vienna), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Suntory Hall (Tokyo) and Herkulessaal (Munich). The Orchestra has performed under the baton of such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Witold Lutosławski, Lorin Maazel, Emmanuel Krivine, Jerzy Maksymiuk, and Krzysztof Penderecki (who served as musical director and afterwards the artistic director of the Orchestra between 1997 and 2020), as well as with soloists including Mstislav Rostropovich, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Alfred Brendel, Martha Argerich, and Piotr Anderszewski.

Sinfonia Varsovia has played over 4,000 concerts all over the world and made over 300 records, including for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, Sony, and Warner. The recorded repertoire includes works from the 18th century to the present day. A special place in the Orchestra’s concert program is occupied by the works of Polish composers, such as Chopin, Penderecki, Paderewski, Lutosławski, Górecki, and Kilar. The Orchestra has premiered numerous works, including those by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Paweł Mykietyn, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Photo by Bartek Barczyk

Peggy Li

Peggy Li has been teaching floral art for more than 20 years. She sees her enthusiasm for flower art as a natural gift and has spun it into a lifelong career. She enjoys every moment designing floral pieces, and her minimalist style is based on appreciating art that expresses vitality and discovering the beauty of decorative art. As a teacher, Peggy passes on the skills and mentality of design to her students.

Peggy is a member and certified floral designer of the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD), for which she has also been an education partner and judge, and she is also a judge, instructor and advanced arranger of Dutch Floral Arrangement (DFA).

Fanny Clamagirand

For many years, Fanny Clamagirand has distinguished herself on the international stage as one of the revelations of the French violin scene. Born in Paris, she began playing the violin at the age of 7 and joined directly at 16 the Postgraduate course under Jean-Jacques Kantorow at the Paris Conservatoire. Winner of the 2007 Monte-Carlo Violin Masters and First Prize at the 2005 F. Kreisler International Competition, Clamagirand also studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Itzhak Rashkovsky and in Vienna with Pavel Vernikov. Acclaimed for the elegance of her playing and her interpretations that blend sensitivity, authority and freedom, she performs as a soloist in the world’s greatest concert halls and festivals with renowned orchestras and artists. She is also a regular guest on various French and foreign medias. She was also a member of Mutter’s Virtuosi, an ensemble of young soloists led by Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Her extensive discography has been widely acclaimed and rewarded by the specialist press. It includes the Six Sonates d’Ysaÿe (Nascor), the three violin concertos by Saint-Saëns (Naxos), a three-volume cycle of works for violin and piano by Saint-Saëns (Naxos), Missing by Edith Canat de Chizy (world premiere, Solstice) with the Orchestre National de France conducted by John Storgårds and Beethoven’s Concerto set against Peteris Vasks’ Distant Light (Mirare), both with the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Ken-David Masur. Her most recent album to be released under Naxos is dedicated to the two violin concertos by Florence Price, recorded with the Malmö Opera Orchestra and John Jeter.

Clamagirand is often invited to judge international competitions and host masterclasses. She was awarded the Prix des Arts by the Académie d’Occitanie in 2019 and is the Artistic Director of the Classiques de la Villa Charlotte, a new international musical event premiered in Les Sables d’Olonne in 2023. Also in the 2023 season, she was one of the Jubilee Ambassadors of the Bärenreiter music publishing house for their centenary celebrations.

Clamagirand plays on a Matteo Goffriller violin made in Venice in 1700.

www.FannyClamagirand.com

Photo by Laetitia Carrette

Aristo Sham

Hailed by The New York Times as a pianist “whose playing combines clarity, elegance and abundant technique” and by The Washington Post as a young artist with “boundless potential” who can “already hold his own with the best,” Aristo Sham has dazzled audiences on five continents. In 2009, he was featured in the documentary The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies, broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK.

Sham has also performed for royalty and dignitaries such as King Charles, the Queen of Belgium, and ex-President Hu Jintao of China, and collaborated with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Edo de Waart, English Chamber Orchestra under the late Sir Raymond Leppard, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Sham first gained international recognition when he won First Prize in the Ettlingen International Piano Competition in Germany in 2006 and First Prize in the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in 2008. He is the First Prize Winner of the 2018 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions and more recently, the recipient of top prizes at the Casagrande, Gina Bachauer, Vendome Prize at Verbier Festival, Dublin, Clara Haskil, New York, Saint-Priest and Viotti International Piano Competitions. In 2023, he won the Grand Prix at the Monte-Carlo Music Masters.

Sham holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University and a Master’s in Piano Performance from New England Conservatory. He is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Juilliard School under Robert McDonald and Orli Shaham. His principal teachers include Eleanor Wong, Colin Stone, Victor Rosenbaum and Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist. He has also been mentored by Gabriela Montero. In his free time, Sham enjoys travelling, languages, gastronomy and oenology.

Photo by Jiyang Chen

Helen Yu

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Helen Yu is currently a student of Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston. She recently completed her master’s degree in 2024 and will commence her graduate diploma studies at NEC. Prior to NEC, she graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) with a Bachelor of Music degree, studying under the tutelage of Michael Ma, with whom she had been studying since she was a junior student at HKAPA.

Yu has held the position of Concertmaster for both the NEC Philharmonia and the NEC Chamber Orchestra. She also won the NEC Honors Chamber Competition with her piano trio. During her time at HKAPA, Helen was the Concertmaster of the Academy Symphony Orchestra and won the Academy Concerto Competition twice, performing Sibelius and Brahms Violin Concertos. She was also the champion of the Tokyo International Youth Music Competition (Virtuoso Senior Class). She has been invited to auditions for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Associate Concertmaster position and section violin positions of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Yu is a recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship from NEC, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholarship, all of which fully support her music studies. She is also an active participant in prestigious music festivals, including the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, the Heifetz International Institute of Music’s chamber music seminar program, the Aspen Summer Music Festival and Curtis Summerfest (as Concertmaster). As a member of Cong Quartet, she recently appeared at the Mimir Chamber Music Festival as an Emerging Artist Fellow.

Yu plays on a violin by Testore, loaned by the Colburn Collection during her time in Boston.

Nadia Ratsimandresy

Soloist, composer, improviser and physical performer: Nadia Ratsimandresy is one of the world’s most versatile ondes martenot players. In her own creative practice, Nadia has forged paths for this unique instrument, developing vast new soundscapes with live electronics and searching for inspiration from other fields.

Born and based in Paris, Ratsimandresy has appeared as a soloist with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of France and London Sinfonietta, among others. She has been featured at major contemporary music festivals including City Sonic Festival (Mons), UNESCO Week of Sound, Festival Electron (Geneva), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Espace Gantner (Montbéliard), Festival Confluences (Paris), KLANG Copenhagen Avant-Garde Music Festival, and venues in France, Belgium, Australia, Denmark, Italy and Sweden.

Ever in demand for multi- and cross-disciplinary works, and a highly skilled improvisor, she has worked with a myriad of composers, shared the stage with the likes of Radiohead, and participated in many collaborative projects with dancers, actors and musicians.

Nadia Ratsimandresy discovered at an early age her fascination with the ondes martenot in the class of Françoise Pellié-Murail in Evry, France. After graduating from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris she was keen to develop new repertoire and forms of expression for her instrument. In 2020, she was appointed president of Futurs Composés, a national network for music creation, and has been co-director with Annabelle Playe of the AnA Compagnie since 2021.

Photo by Hervé Bailly Basin

Seung-Won Oh

A native of South Korea, Seung-Won Oh is an acclaimed composer who was described as “a name to remember” (2003) in the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant writing about her first professional commission work for a percussion sextet, DaDeRimGill. Her music has been performed throughout Europe, North America and Asia, and transcends traditional boundaries. As critic Mirjam Zegers writes, “Oh connects East and West, vibrant motion and stillness, pure sound and ritual theatre, stratified structures and transparency.”

Her work juxtaposes soloists or groups of instruments against an ensemble, creating a space for dramatic development. The conflict between the individual’s will and the collective’s demands is a frequent theme. In recent years a rapidly growing interest in theater, space, movement and interaction with the audience has been generating projects that require close collaboration with the performers. Her most recent successful large scale work, the requiem YeonDo (2020) [연도: purgatory prayer], showcases the continuous trajectory of her interests. YeonDo creates a deeply spiritual and theatrical music experience of a symbolic death ritual. (Unlike the traditional set-up of the requiem mass, the soloist, choir, percussion quartet, and orchestra are initially independent in various locations of a music space until they unite into a conglomerate at the final tutti.) Oh’s signature percussion writing plays an essential role in YeonDo. The percussion quartet adds another layer of plot that symbolizes a funeral procession that is performed from all four sides of the hall surrounding the audience. (Compositionally integrating into music, the willing participating audiences toll bells transcending their musical experience to another level.)

Also, in her recent small ensemble music, the spatial / acoustic relationship between the player(s) and audience in a specific space has steadily become one of the quintessential elements in her compositions requiring specific stage set up.

The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation at the Bellagio Center, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship through the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Oh is celebrated both in her home country and abroad: at the 3rd Seoul International Competition for Composers she received both first prize and the audience prize. In 2007, she won third prize for the Lutosławski Award in Poland, and was the winner of the 2010 Toonzetters award given to the best Dutch contemporary composition of the year. In 2022 with YeonDo, she won the Kees van Baarenprijs awarded to a significant orchestral work or music-theatrical work.

Oh’s background is as varied as her accolades. She began her studies at Korea’s Ewha Woman's University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She went on to earn her Ph.D. at Brandeis University in the US, before her studies led to Louis Andrissen’s tutelage at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. It was during her time in the Netherlands that she began to explore the rich musical traditions of her own heritage which enabled her to quickly establish her musical identity and the reputation as a composer.

Seung-Won Oh has taught at Brandeis University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Florida at Gainesville, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, DePaul University in Chicago and Royal Conservatory of the Hague.

Photo by Alex Schröder

Alexander Liebreich

Music Director of the Orquestra de Valencia and Artistic Advisor of the Palau de la Musica Valencia from the 2022/23 season, the distinguished German conductor Alexander Liebreich has also been President of the Richard-Strauss-Gesellschaft and Artistic Director of the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen since 2018, following Wolfgang Sawallisch and Brigitte Fassbaender in this position. He has previously held the positions of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (2018–2022), Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) (2012–2019), and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra (2006–2016).

Recent seasons saw him bringing signature symphonic and choral repertoire to the Orquestra de Valencia, including Schubert’s 9th, Schumann’s 3rd and Mahler’s 5th symphonies, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Haydn’s Die Schopfung, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe, and a concert performance of Strauss’s Salome. He also opens the season of the MDR Sinfonieorchester in Leipzig, and returns to the Taipei Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Nagoya Symphony, and the Japan and Brno Philharmonic Orchestras, with repertoire ranging from John Adams, Beethoven and Janáček to Gubaidulina and Weinberg.

Known for innovative projects, Liebreich was the first European Artistic Director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival. As Artistic Director of “Katowice Kultura Natura,” he invited top European ensembles and inaugurated the NOSPR concert hall with Krystian Zimerman.

His discography includes recordings from Bach to Toshio Hosokawa, with acclaimed releases for Accentus Music and ECM Classics, including a Grammy-nominated Requiem by Tigran Mansurian.

Born in Regensburg, Liebreich studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and the Salzburg Mozarteum, gaining early experience with Michael Gielen and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and significant influence from mentor Claudio Abbado. In 2016, he received the Bavarian Culture Prize Special Award.

Photo by Sammy Hart

Lam Hiuman

Hiuman Lam graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor’s degree in Chinese Language and Literature and a Master’s degree in Cultural and Religious Studies. She currently works as a writer, photographer and curator. In 2020, she founded “Hong Kong Reminiscence”, a platform dedicated to documenting Hong Kong’s cultural heritage. As the author of Hong Kong Reminiscence: Documents of Hong Kong's Old Stories, she has hosted and participated in numerous local and overseas photography- and design-related exhibitions. The publication was supported in the inaugural Next Writer Publication Funding Scheme (Intangible Cultural Heritage category) and won the Publishing Award (Picture Book category) and Marketing Award in the 4th Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Awards. Lam hopes to record the unique culture of Hong Kong through various mediums, transforming history into memory.

Evette Chiu

Evette Chiu Yat-wing is a Hong Kong born bassist. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and master’'s degrees in solo playing and orchestra playing from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Germany. She also studied under the Principal of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Ekkehard Beringer, in a programme coordinated by the Shanghai Orchestra Academy in 2016.

Possessing various orchestral and chamber experiences, Evette completed fellowship programs with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker in 2019 and the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie in 2018. She has learned from experienced members of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and SWR Symphonieorchester.

Recently, Evette expanded her music career as a jazz musician. In the year of 2024, she performed in numerous venues including the Laubak Livehouse, Fountain de Chopin and Visage One. Evette is now an active musician in multiple fields based in Hong Kong, working as a freelance musician for Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong City Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong String Orchestra, etc.

Antti Tikkanen

Antti Tikkanen is a musician who enjoys performing in various ways, from solo and chamber, as well as baroque performance, to leading orchestras. The wide range of repertoire from early baroque to contemporary music reflects the scope of the musical playground he likes to work in. At home, the scope stays wide open with fresh ideas from two daughters and two cats.

Tikkanen is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Finnish string quartet Meta4 and he teaches at the Sibelius Academy. From 2021 Tikkanen is the co-artistic director of Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival together with his wife, violinist Minna Pensola . They also run a concert series called PuKama Chamber in Helsinki together. With the series they are creating new ways to reach audiences, as well as commissioning new repertoire and coaching young talents into performing careers.

Between 2014–2017 Tikkanen was the artistic director of the Finnish Baroque Orchestra. Since then he has been in demand as an orchestral leader with Finnish orchestras, as well as the European Union Youth Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Tikkanen was appointed as the artistic partner of the Joensuu Orchestra for the seasons 2022–2024. The performance of new concertos and commissioned works can be heard and seen in Tikkanen’s activities; in 2024, these will feature Marzi Nyman’s Violin Concerto with various orchestras in Finland, and the premiere of Osmo Tapio Räihälä’s Concerto for Two Violins together with Minna Pensola in Joensuu.

Antti Tikkanen plays a Stradivarius violin “ex Berglund” kindly on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. His viola is made by Eero Haahti.

Photo by Jaakko Paarvala

Cheung Hiu-fai

Cheung Hiu-fai graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a master’s degree in Culture Management. He also received scholarships to study jinhu, erhu and banhu in the mainland China. In 2002, Cheung was awarded a Special Award in Erhu Performances at the Chinese Music Instrumental Performance Competition in Beijing, organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Nationalities Orchestra Society. In 2015, he performed in Chan Hing-yan’s chamber opera Datong (Hong Kong Arts Festival), and recently performed with New Music Ensemble in the multimedia program Contain. As a founding member of the huqin ensemble Hulala, Cheung has performed commissioned works in several concerts and workshops.

Cecilia Lau

Freelance actor, director, and music and drama instructor Cecilia Lau Yee-lee graduated from the School of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2022, majoring in acting. A recipient of the Lai Cho-tin Memorial Scholarship, she also attended a summer musical theater program at the Guildford School of Acting in the UK. Her work includes Searching for Stillness (HKADC), Last Ride, Fresh Eyes (Tai Kwun), Drive My Cube (Indie Play Reading), and Strategy (AFTEC). Recently, she has served as actor, composer, lyricist, arranger, and vocal coach for Les Fleurs du Mal (Artocrite Theater) and is the music director for its original soundtrack. She is also a member of the music band CrossRoad.

Cameristi della Scala

Italy

The chamber orchestra "Cameristi della Scala", formed by the musicians of the orchestra of Teatro alla Scala di Milano, was founded in 1982. The orchestra has a unique identity and artistic influence from celebrated great conductors of the past and present working at Teatro alla Scala contributed to the character and the shape of Cameristi's musical phrasing blended with distinctive Italian sound.

Cameristi della Scala has performed in many prestigious music festivals and concert halls throughout the world such as Carnegie Hall, United Nations Auditorium, Library of Congress, Tchaikovsky Hall, Salle Gaveau, Tonhalle, Victoria Hall, Istanbul Music Festival, Enescu Festival, Autumn Tbilisi Music Festival, Warsaw Opera Theatre, Teatro Coliseo, Sony Center in Toronto, Canary Island Festival, collaborating with artists such as Maxim Vengerov, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Alexandre Kantorow, Daniel Lozakovich, Khatia Buniatishvili, Jan Lisiecki, David Fray, Francesco Piemontesi, Sergey Babayan.

A new album with masterpieces by Mozart and Beethoven has been recently released for Claves Records, starting a new collaboration with the Swiss label.

For the Centennial Year of Leonard Bernstein, Cameristi della Scala has performed a special concert commemorating the great musical icon at Teatro alla Scala in May 2018. Together with the celebrated Italian danseur/La Scala principal dancer Roberto Bolle, Cameristi developed an original project performed at 2018 Davos World Economic Forum.

During a 2010 tour to Israel and China, Cameristi performed at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv and for Expo 2010 in Shanghai, performing four concerts before large audience. Between 2007 and 2009 Cameristi della Scala was featured annually in the Grand Summer Concerts in Piazza del Duomo in Milan in front of 20,000 audience.

Cameristi della Scala received the Premio Isimbardi in 2012 from the Province of Milan as a recognition for their outstanding contribution to the community and the prestige of the city of Milan in the world. Following his sensational debut with the orchestra, effective December 2017 the conductor Wilson Hermanto begins his association with Cameristi della Scala as the Principal Guest Conductor.

Photo by Kaupo Kikkas

Wilson Hermanto

Praised for his deep musicianship, natural authority, and elegance, Wilson Hermanto has served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Cameristi della Scala since 2017. In the 2024/25 season, he debuts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg with the Wiener Kammerorchester and returns to conduct the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala Orchestra. He also leads a recording project with Sinfonia Varsovia and trumpeter Clément Saunier, featuring works by Peter Eötvös, HK Gruber, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Together with Cameristi della Scala, he performs in Italy, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, following their 2024 Claves Records release of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 “Haffner”.

In 2023/24, Hermanto returned to the Enescu Festival, led Cameristi della Scala on tour in France and Switzerland, and conducted the Warsaw Philharmonic to close the Warsaw Autumn Festival. He also worked with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra in Wrocław. Since 2022, he has served as Co-Artistic Director of the Vevey Spring Classic in Switzerland, alongside cellist Daniel Müller-Schott.

As a guest conductor, Hermanto has led major orchestras, including the Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish National Radio Symphony, Orchestre national de Metz, George Enescu Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra. His work with Cameristi della Scala has taken him across Europe and Turkey. He has also worked with major orchestras worldwide, including the Orchestre national de Lyon, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Cleveland Orchestra, NDR Radio Philharmonie, and Malaysian Philharmonic. Leading soloists and composers he has worked with include Maxim Vengerov, Lang Lang, Gautier Capuçon, Sergei Babayan, Zygmunt Krauze, Jörg Widmann, and Lowell Liebermann.

Born in Indonesia of Chinese descent and a longtime Swiss resident, Hermanto studied violin at the Peabody Conservatory and conducting at the Manhattan School of Music under Sixten Ehrling. He was mentored by Sir Colin Davis, studied with Carlo Maria Giulini in Italy, and was a Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood Music Center under Seiji Ozawa and at the Lucerne Festival Academy under Pierre Boulez.

Photo by Kaupo Kikkas

Roberto Nigro

Born in Naples into a family of musicians, Roberto Nigro began to study the piano and violin at a very young age. After graduating at the age of 18 from the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence under the guidance of Renato Zanettovich, he continued his violin studies with Giulio Franzetti and Ana Chumachenco.

In 2001, Roberto Nigro was appointed as  the Principal Second Violin of the Orchestra of Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and the following year he won the prestigious post as a member of the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, a role which he still occupies today. He has since collaborated with the orchestras of Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Teatro Massimo in Palermo and previously held the Concertmaster position in the Orchestra Regionale del Lazio and at the Festival del Luglio Musicale Trapanese. In addition, Roberto Nigro participated in the tour of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in 2001.

Alongside his many activities with the various ensembles of the Teatro alla Scala, Roberto Nigro has an intense commitment to chamber music projects; from the piano quartet formation to the more ambitious projects which have taken him on tour to many Italian cities performing repertoire such as Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat. Recently Roberto Nigro resumed his study of the Baroque performance practice, giving life, together with the cellist Simone Groppo, to the founding of the ensemble Capriccio Armonico, with which he recently debuted in the chamber music season of the Teatro alla Scala.

Roberto Nigro plays a violin made by Giovanni Gagliano dated 1810.

Prudence Poon

Hong Kong

Hong Kong-born pianist Prudence Poon was a finalist in Musicus Society’s Young Artist Audition 2023. She recently earned her Doctor of Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, majoring in Music Literature and Piano Performance, with a minor in Music Education under Roberto Plano.

Poon has received numerous awards, including an Honorable Mention and the Audience Prize at the 70th Wideman International Piano Competition and the Melvin Stecher and Norman Horowitz Prize at the 8th New York International Piano Competition. Her scholarships include the Irving & Lena Lo (ILLO) Scholarship Fund, Bernard van Zuiden Music Fund, Dean’s Scholarship (New England Conservatory), and Tan Family Foundation support.

An avid chamber musician and educator, Poon has worked as an accompanist at Oberlin Conservatory, the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and the School of Continuing Education. She also served as an assistant instructor at Indiana University and was invited to teach at the 2023 Edward Auer Summer Workshop.

Poon began studying piano at age three and made her orchestral debut at ten with the Hong Kong Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. She trained under Nancy Loo and Yim Wan in Hong Kong before earning a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory under Robert Shannon and Philip Highfill. At Oberlin, she was awarded the prestigious Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, a distinguished honor presented only once every five years for exceptional music performance. She completed her master’s degree at the New England Conservatory under HaeSun Paik.

Membership Chair

Ms. Vicky Wong

Vicky Wong has extensive experience in advertising and marketing. She worked for Campaign Advertising and subsequently DDB Needham. Currently, Vicky is Marketing Director of Prestique Limited, a marketing firm based in Hong Kong, where she serves primarily fast-moving consumer goods, arts and cultural entities, sports, and financial clients.

Sub-committee Member

Ken Lo

Ken Lo is currently the CEO of SEED Foundation, a charity organization in Hong Kong with the mission to future proof our youths in the digitally-driven economy. SEED delivers a comprehensive learning journey to students from all socio-economic backgrounds, combining academic courses on advanced technological skills with real-life experiences and projects, such that they are equipped with the foundation and domain expertise when they choose their pathways post secondary education.

He is an established business leader with expertise in sales management, business development, strategic planning, and new media, having led Sony Pictures Television in the role of Executive Vice President, managing professionals across 8 locations across Asia. He also had worked for Microsoft and McKinsey & Company.

Currently, Ken is also the Chairperson for RunOurCity Foundation Limited, which promotes running in Hong Kong through large-scale running events, as well as provides long-distance running coaching to youths to demonstrate the virtues and rewards of perseverance and self-confidence, and also serves on the development committee for WWF Hong Kong.

Ken has an MBA from Harvard University and a BASc in engineering from University of Waterloo, Canada.

Education Chair & Programming Co-Chair

Ms. Sophie Lin

Sophie Lin has over twenty years of combined experience in international arts management and education covering the North American and Greater China regions. She has worked with some of the most prestigious arts organizations in the world; namely, The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Concert Artists Guild and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in the capacity of artist management, orchestra operation, concert production, as well as personnel. In Asia, she has played an instrumental role in the fundraising for the Asian Youth Orchestra across China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In the field of education, she was the Development Director of American Field Services, an international cultural exchange organization targeted at underprivileged students of Hong Kong.

Among the numerous major international projects, Sophie Lin has consulted for the Concert Series of University of Chicago. Most recently, she collaborated with the Curtis Institute of Music in managing its educational tour to Hong Kong.

Ms Lin received her masters in arts management from Carnegie Mellon University, and her bachelor in piano performance with a minor in violin performance from Duquene University, both on full scholarships.

Publicity Chair

Ms. Lilian Chen

Lilian is the founder and Managing Director of a fintech company in Hong Kong, leveraging her extensive management experience in the technology sector. With a strong background in PR and marketing, she is also committed to fostering innovation and social change through the incubation of promising startups.

In addition to her leadership role, Lilian writes a column focused on art and culture, with her articles and reviews featured in local newspapers and online media.

Honorary Treasurer

Ms. Elizabeth Law, MH, JP

Elizabeth Law, Certified Public Accountant (Practising), managing director of Law & Partners CPA Limited.

Ms. Law is also a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant of Canada and Member of Institute of Chartered Accountant of England & Wales, and a Fellow Member of Certified Public Accountants, Australia and the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong.

She is also the founder of the Association of Women Accountants (Hong Kong) and was the founding president of the Association. She was the President of the Society of Chinese Accountants and Auditors, and Council Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and plays an active role in serving the community in both Hong Kong and China, serving as member of many government departments and public organizations including being the member of Equal Opportunities Commission, Hon. Treasurer of Hong Kong Council of Social Services, Member of The Advisory Group of McGill University in Asia, and Council Member of China Overseas Friendship Association etc.

To acknowledge her excellent achievements in promoting the industry, she was awarded the Outstanding Accountant Ambassador in 2003 and one of the 100 Outstanding Chinese Women Entrepreneurs in 2007.

Honorary Secretary

Ms. Angela Ho

Angela Ho is the founder and principal of Angela Ho & Associates, a law firm specialized in corporate finance and restructuring laws, especially public listings. She has been practicing law for nearly 18 years and has spent 4 years working at an investment bank. She was President of Hong Kong Federation of Women Lawyers from 2002 to 2005 and is Honorary Vice-President of Guangdong Foreign Related Investment Law Association.

Vice-Chairman, Council

Ms. Leonie Ki, GBS, JP

Leonie Ki joined New World China Enterprises Projects Limited as Managing Director since 1997. She is Non-Executive Director of New World Development Co. Ltd., Director of New World First Bus Services Limited (Kunming, PRC), and an independent non-executive director of listed companies. She was the founder, partner and Chairman/CEO of Grey Advertising Limited in Hong Kong and Mainland China. From 1995 – 97, she joined The Better Hong Kong Foundation as Chief Executive.

Leonie Ki has lectured extensively at universities in Greater China. Being a veteran advertising professional, and popular author and columnist, she wrote a best-selling advertising book in Chinese, which was one of the top ten most influential books in Taipei in 1990.

Leonie Ki is committed to community and public services. She is currently a Council member of UNICEF, a life member of the Children’s Cancer Foundation, and a Court and Council member of Lingnan University. She also sits on the Advisory Committees of EMBA/CUHK, Career Advisory Board of HKU, the Asian Advisory Board of the Cheng Yu Tung Management Institute, Richard Ivey School of Business (The University of Western Ontario, Canada), and has been a member of CPU and the Commission on Strategic Development. She is also a CPPCC member of Yunnan Province.

Chairman, Council

Mrs. Janice Choi, MH, JP

Janice Choi was appointed by the Government to the General Committee of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society Limited in November 2002 for 4 consecutive years involved mainly in its re-organization. Afterward, she was elected to the new Board of Governors, and is still serving on the Board. She is also a founding member and was a director of Opera Hong Kong, of which tenor Warren Mok is the Artistic Director.

Janice Choi has been a practicing solicitor admitted to the Supreme Court of Hong Kong since 1982. She is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales, as an advocate in Singapore, and as a barrister in Victoria, Australia. She has been a China Attesting Officer appointed by the PRC Government since 1993. Janice is legal director of Sun Wah Group and non-executive director of SW Kingsway Capital Holdings Limited (stock code: 188), and consultant of Rowland Chow, Chan & Co. Solicitors & Notaries.

Co-founder and President

Chui-Inn Lee

Chui-Inn Lee has extensive experience in the arts, media and entertainment sectors, as both a business executive and a pianist. In the 1990s, she was the general manager of IMG China, then the world’s leading sports and music management company. She was one of two key members who created the ground-breaking Chinese National Basketball League with the Chinese Basketball Association. She was influential in helping the state-run sport in China move into the commercial era. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, she was vice-president of business development at Star TV, previously the Asian subsidiary of News Corporation, and executive producer of the international award-winning film Rice Rhapsody, directed by Kenneth Bi, and starring Sylvia Chang, Martin Yan and Melanie Laurent.

In classical music, Ms. Lee has brought leading European orchestras and international artists to tour China, and in 2010, she co-founded Musicus Society, of which she continues to serve as president. In 2020, she was awarded a Commendation for Community Service by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR.

Ms. Lee received her MBA from Harvard Business School, and graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts. She attended the pre-college and college divisions of The Juilliard School in New York on Julliard scholarships, studying piano under Oxana Yablonskaya and Jane Carlson. She has won numerous awards in North America and Hong Kong, including the Juilliard Concerto Competition, the International Grand Rapids Young Keyboard Artist Competition and the Canadian National Competition. As well as performing as a soloist, she has also formed a trio with her siblings, cellist Trey Lee and violinist Chui-Tan Lee.

Honorary Artistic Advisor

Ms. Xu Xia

Xu Xia, mezzo soprano, is currently the Artistic Director of Shenzhen Concert Hall and Vice President of the Shenzhen Musician Association. In 1981, she graduated from the Arts Department of Jiangxi Normal College and was assigned to Jiangxi Song and Dance Theatre as a solo singer. In 1984, she was admitted to the Voice Opera Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and studied with Zhou Xiaoyan, the renowned Chinese coloratura and vocal educator. In 1987, she was transferred to the Second Artillery Force of Beijing as a solo singer in song and dance troupe of the Political Department. During her career as a soprano, she has won many prizes in competitions nationwide.

In 1990, Xu Xia played a key role in the construction planning of Shenzhen Concert Hall. After the opening of the concert hall, she initiated important programs such as The Sound of Spring, Happy Summer for Families and Listen to the Sound of Autumn. With the support of Shenzhen government, she further created the popular Beautiful Sunday program for the Shenzhen public.

Xu Xia received her Masters in Arts Management from Shanghai Music Conservatory and Masters from the EDP program at Guanghua School of Management at Beijing University.

Honorary Advisor

Ms. Kai-yin Lo, SBS

Ms. Kai-yin Lo is one of the most internationally acclaimed designers. In 2007, She was named the “World’s Leading Chinese Designer” by the Hong Kong Design Centre, recognized to be the most important award for designers of Chinese heritage.

Apart from being Hong Kong’s most successful jewelry designer, she is also a well-known historian, patron, and Chinese art collector. She has written three books on Chinese art and culture.

Honorary Advisors

Dr. Darwin Chen, SBS, ISO

Mr. Darwin Chen was Manager of Hong Kong City Hall upon its completion, and from the 1970s, he was Director of Cultural Services. At City Hall and Cultural Services, Mr. Chen brought to fruition numerous projects, including a subsidy scheme for local performing arts presentations, and the professionalization of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hong Kong Academy of Ballet. This was followed by the founding of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Hong Kong Dance Company, and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre.

From the mid-1980s, Mr. Chen continued to serve Hong Kong in different capacities: as Commissioner for Television and Entertainment Licensing, Deputy Secretary of Constitutional Affairs responsible for the drafting of the Basic Law, Commissioner for Labour, and Director of Buildings and Lands. After his retirement from the Civil Service, between 1993 and 2000, he served as Chief Executive of the Community Chest. He continues to be Senior Advisor of the Community Chest, and is Vice President for Asia of United Way International, of which the Chest is a member, and Vice Chair of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium.

He has also been Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the Committee on Performing Arts.

Honorary Advisors

The Hon. Sir David Akers-Jones, KBE, CMG, GBM, JP

Sir David Akers-Jones has served in many important posts in the Government of Hong Kong, including Principal Assistant Colonial Secretary, Secretary for the New Territories, Secretary for Home Affairs, Chief Secretary, Acting Governor of Hong Kong, Special Assistant to the Governor Lord Wilson, and Chairman of the Hong Kong Housing Authority.

Sir Akers-Jones was appointed as an Advisor on Hong Kong Issues (港事顧問) to the Government of the PRC from 1993 to 1997, and is actively involved with, whether in the capacity of chairman, president, vice-president or otherwise, Wu Zhi Qiao (Bridge to China) Charitable Foundation, the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association, the local chapter of Outward Bound, the Hong Kong Football Association, World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong, the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation, Operation Smile China, and English Speaking Union (Hong Kong).

Honorary Patron

The Hon. Tung Chee Hwa, GBM

Mr. Tung Chee Hwa is the Vice Chairman of the Eleventh National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, People’s Republic of China. He is the Founding Chairman of the China-United States Exchange Foundation (“CUSEF”). Prior to these appointments, Mr. Tung served as the First Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“HKSAR”), People’s Republic of China from July 1997 to March 2005.

As the First Chief Executive of HKSAR, Mr. Tung presided over the historic return of Hong Kong to China and successfully turned the “One Country Two Systems” and “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” with “a high degree of autonomy” from a concept into an everyday reality.

The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (“CPPCC”) is one of the most important institutions of the People’s Republic of China. Members of the CPPCC are made up of distinguished former senior government officials, well known professionals, outstanding academics, members of different political parties and people from different religious and ethnic groups from all across China. Major responsibilities of the CPPCC are to participate in the formulation and development of policies, to monitor the work of the government, and to promote consultative democracy. It plays a key role in ensuring that the opinions from the public at large are reflected to the government, and that government policies are communicated to the people.

The China-United States Exchange Foundation is a non-profit organisation registered in Hong Kong and was established in January 2008. Mr. Tung is the Founding Chairman and is supported by friends in Hong Kong, China and the United States. The mission of the Foundation is to promote understanding and strengthen relationships between the US and China. This is being done by fostering open dialogue between opinion leaders from governments, think tanks, academia, media, and business communities of both countries.

Born in 1937 in Shanghai, Mr. Tung spent his childhood in Hong Kong. From 1954, he spent six years in the United Kingdom, first in secondary education and then in tertiary education, graduating from the University of Liverpool with a BSc in 1960. From 1960-1969, he lived and worked in the United States, first as an engineer with General Electric in Massachusetts, and then in the family business in New York. In 1969, Mr. Tung returned to Hong Kong to help run the family business. He had a successful and distinguished career in business, while at the same time, served in various public sector and advisory positions in Hong Kong. In 1997, he took on the position as the first Chief Executive of HKSAR.

Mr. Tung is married to Betty Chiu Hung Ping. They have three children and nine grandchildren.

Chairman

Tiffany Soong

Tiffany Soong has over 25 years of experience in art and media. She co-founded Gurung Tea, a social enterprise and certified B Corp, which has improved livelihood of farmers in the Nawalparasi district in Nepal. She held senior positions in Phoenix Culture and Global Culture Asset Management (GCAM) where she has led the team to provide design, exhibition, development and implementation plans of numerous museums and culture projects across China enhancing cultural engagement and community development.

Prior to these roles, Tiffany founded Magic Beans Media, achieving nationwide coverage of her innovative preschooler TV programs. She had also worked for News Corporation and CNN.

Tiffany received her MBA in nonprofit management from Yale University. She serves as an advisor to Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai (MoCA Shanghai) where she she had curated a notable exhibition in 2014.

Honorary Secretary

Patrick Wong

Mr. Wong is a Solicitor of Hong Kong and Solicitor of England and Wales. As a senior partner of Liu, Chan and Lam, his areas of practice include contentious and non-contentious commercial and company matters, insolvency and financial restructuring. With the experience and knowledge gained from his legal profession, Mr. Wong serves as the Honorary Legal Advisor of Junior Chamber International Hong Kong, Legal Advisor of Hong Kong Paediatric Rheumatism Association and Vice-Chairman of Hong Kong Anti-Doping Appeal Panel of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China. His other roles in public service include serving on the Board of The Tsinforn C. Wong Memorial Scholarship (run by Jean M. Wong School of Ballet).

Mr. Wong is also the former Vice President of the Lions Club of Hong Kong Island.

The Blazing Mirage

Other Concerts