Alan Kwan
Alan Kwan is an award-winning guitarist, composer, producer, and educator. As the band leader of Invisible Architecture, which debuted in 2021 with the album Between Now and Never, he has won Best Instrumental Album Producer for the 33rd Golden Melody Awards, and three other nominations for Best Instrumental Recording Album (Technical Category), Best Composer (Instrumental Category), and Best Instrumental Album. Kwan’s first album, Petrichor, has also received three nominations for the 31st Golden Melody Awards including the Best Instrumental Album, Best Instrumental Album Producer, and Best Composer (Instrumental Category). He was also a semi-finalist of the International Songwriting Competition in 2016-2018.
Kwan has performed in locations across the globe, including New York, Texas, Tokyo, Taipei, and Hong Kong. He has performed or recorded with a number of well-known musicians including Billy Childs, Dayna Stephens, Fabian Almazan, Linda May Oh, Johnathan Blake, Orlando Le Fleming, Reuben James, Glenn Zaleski, Kazumi Watanabe, Paul Bollenback, Rogerio Boccato, Sean Wayland, Stefan Karlsson, David Smith, Masaki Hayashi, Takashi Sugawa, Daiki Yasukagawa, Kazu Kumagai, Rich Huang, Eugene Pao, and Ted Lo with performances ranging from private shows, stage performances to outdoor performances.
Kwan has appeared on various music festivals including Montreux Jazz Festival China, Taichung Jazz Festival (main stage), Taipei Jazz Festival (main stage), French May Arts Festival, and Macau International Music Festival. He has been invited by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York (HKETONY) to perform at different occasions, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner.
Kwan started his musical education at the University of North Texas, where he was the recipient of the College of Music Scholarship, Kris Kolflat Scholarship, and Academic Scholarship. He took his pursuit of jazz music further by completing Master of Music in Jazz Performance at Queens College, City University of New York in 2017, where he concurrently tapped into the New York jazz scene.
Alongside his performance career, Kwan has been involved in numerous music projects. Over his career, he has written the music for several feature films and advertisements. On teaching musical performance, he has been invited to conduct master classes in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and the USA. Towards a general audience, Kwan has served as curator and host for various jazz education projects, including the Black Music Legends Club: Conversations with Dr. Chi Chung Wong & Alan Kwan at Asia Society Hong Kong Center in 2022, Jazz Classics—Let’s Listen, Let’s Jam! Lecture Demonstrations from 2018-2021, Jazz Composers’ Lab video series in 2021-2022, and RTHK podcast series Jazz Talk in 2022. For his contributions to youth education and social outreach in music, he has been awarded in the Secretary for Home Affairs’ Commendation Scheme 2021.
