LEUNG Kin-Fung

Free Mr Leung Kin-fung is a world-class musician who wears many hats in the classical music world, being the First Associate Concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director of Hong Kong Orchestra, and Artistic Director of Hong Kong Pure Strings, among many other capacities. Born in Guangzhou, he started playing the violin publicly at eight. Later he moved to Hong Kong, with outstanding performance, he gained admission to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1984. Two years later, he won a full scholarship to study at the Eastman School of Music, U.S., before earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School with a full scholarship.

 

As a highly decorated artist, Mr Leung’s performances around the globe had earned him unanimous acclaim in places such as Italy, Belgium, Russia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, Korea and the U.S. While it is impossible to list all the accolades bestowed upon him exhaustively, his strings of awards began as early as in the 1990s when Mr Leung won Second Prize at the 19th William Primrose International Viola Competition and became the first Hong Kong musician to win First Prize at the Young Artist Competition in New York. He was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Hong Kong in 2002. He made it to the list of Who’s Who in the HKSAR by Sing Tao Publishing in 2004 and earned the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2014 — Artist of the Year (Music). Mr Leung has been a recording artist since 1996, winning great reviews and popularity with his prolific productions of solo albums and DVDs.

 

Besides being an exuberant performer and conductor, Mr Leung is enthusiastic to pass on his musical techniques and artistic vision to the next generations. He once taught at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in New York and the National Taiwan University of Arts. Currently, He teaches at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2014, Leung was appointed the Performing Arts Director of the Diocesan Girls’ School. Since 2017, he has become the Programme Director of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macau-Taiwan Youth Cultural Exchange Festival. To provide young talented musicians with a platform to challenge their skills, Mr Leung founded Hong Kong Youth Orchestra in 2020 and recruited members from secondary schools and tertiary institutes.

 

Mr Leung has been the Artistic Director and Conductor of PolyU Orchestra since 2016. Apart from leading the orchestra to give fabulous performances, he has provided professional training to members and has contributed significantly to the cultivation of music appreciation among the PolyU community. Mr. Leung was conferred the 2021/22 University Fellowship by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.