© Tat Keng Tey
Lio Kuokman
Currently serving as Programme Director of the Macao International Music Festival and Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Lio is praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a startling conducting talent”. He was the second prize winner of the third Svetlanov International Conducting Competition in Paris with audience prize and orchestra prize and has served as the first Chinese Assistant Conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Lio has successfully collaborated with many leading orchestras across the globe. This season he was invited as the first Chinese conductor to conduct subscription concert with the Vienna Symphony; invited by the French government to lead the first Saudi Arabia performance tour with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; completed 10 performances in Taiwan with NTSO; appearance at Music in PyeongChang Festival and conducted the season closing concert with Hong Kong Philharmonic. Other collaborated orchestras include Detroit Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK, Hiroshima, Tokyo Metropolitan, Kyoto Symphony, Russian National Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Latvian National Symphony, etc.
Lio recently collaborated with National Taichung Theater on a production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Other opera performances included La bohème, L’elisir d’amore, Pagliacci, Turandot, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, Carmen; and was invited by Valery Gergiev as guest conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre. As a concert pianist, Lio has collaborated with Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and Fort Worth Symphony.
Educated at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the New England Conservatory, Lio is a founding member and President of the Macao Chamber Music Association. For his contributions to the development of arts and culture, Lio has received a Certificate of Commendation and Medal of Cultural Merit from both governments of Hong Kong and Macao. In 2021 Lio is the recipient of the Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award.
