• 1985 Born in Hong Kong
• 2007 Graduated from Music Department, The Hong Kong Chinese University
• 2008 Graduated from Music Department, King’s College London
• 2013 Doctorate in Composition from The University of York
• 2015 Hong Kong Sinfonietta Contemporary Music Research
• 2020 HKS Artist Associate
• 2020 City of Zurich Artist-in-Residence Programme for Young International Artists

Orchestras and festivals which have commissioned Kwong include:

• Takefu International Music Festival (2018 & 2020)
• Hong Kong Sinfonietta (2009, 2014-2018, 2020)
• The Hong Kong Arts Festival (2017)

For any composer or musician, to have people who appreciate your talent is something precious. But to have someone who has faith in you and offers you opportunities when you are still green and unproven, that is something priceless. To me, Hong Kong Sinfonietta is such a presence.

My collaboration with Hong Kong Sinfonietta began in 2009 when I was 23, having just begun my studies abroad in the UK. I was invited by the orchestra to do an arrangement during a semester break in Hong Kong. Later when I finished my PhD in 2013, the first professional commission I received after moving back to Hong Kong was also from Hong Kong Sinfonietta. For that, I wrote the orchestral work As the Streams Never Cease. To my surprise and delight, my collaboration with Hong Kong Sinfonietta has not ceased ever since. I continued to write several more orchestral and chamber works for the orchestra, and among them, At the Very End of Old Dreams was taken by the orchestra to several countries on their European tour in 2017.

These collaborations with Hong Kong Sinfonietta have given me plentiful opportunities since an early stage to write for an excellent orchestra who is versed in contemporary repertoire. This has allowed me to develop and establish my personal voice. Such exposure is something to be dreamt of for any young composer. Many local and oversea collaborators I have had in recent years first knew of my music through these compositions I wrote for Hong Kong Sinfonietta. It has to be said that Hong Kong Sinfonietta is an orchestra who listens to their artists. In all of our collaborations all these years, I have always been given the greatest freedom I could have imagined. The many experiences from working with Hong Kong Sinfonietta have been, and will continue to be, an indispensable part of my life in composing. I can only consider myself extremely lucky to have had such a companion along this musical path.

I feel very honoured and grateful to have been appointed the Artist Associate of Hong Kong Sinfonietta this season. At the time of writing this message, I have just completed a new work, Pastoral – after we perish, written for the orchestra’s season-opening concert and European tour. Other than that, we are also brewing two other works that would jump out of the norms of usual orchestral commissions. In taking up this new role with the orchestra, I wish to create more new works that intrigue, and let our audience experience the creativity and immense possibilities that symphonic music embodies.

Charles Kwong   

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Born and raised in Hong Kong, composer Charles Kwong has a diverse and growing portfolio of creative output including orchestral, choral, chamber and instrumental works. Distinguished groups and musicians around the world that have performed Kwong’s music include Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Eastman BroadBand, Kreutzer String Quartet, Mario Caroli and Tosiya Suzuki, among others. His works have been internationally featured in prestigious festivals such as Takefu International Music Festival, Ticino Musica, Rondò a Bobbio, IRCAM ManiFeste, Festival International de Piano La Roque d’Anthéron, Gezeitenkonzerte in Ostfriesland, Marvão International Music Festival and Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Kwong’s compositional explorations stretch beyond the paradigms of concert hall music, resulting in numerous site-specific works, sound installations and cross-disciplinary collaborations that highlight the experiential dimension of music. He was the curator of Our Audible City (2018-2019) – a project in collaboration with Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, soundpocket and visual artist Frank Tang, supported by the “Arts: Transforming Hong Kong” Grant of The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation – for which he wrote Atlas, a series of site-specific works tailored for non-concert-hall spaces in Hong Kong.

Kwong’s recent highlights in 2020 include being selected for the City of Zurich Artist-in-Residence Programme in association with Zurich University of the Arts, a portrait concert in Taipei performed by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and being featured again at the Takefu International Music Festival. He has also been appointed Artist Associate of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta for their 2020/2021 season, in addition to his work on contemporary music research and programming for the orchestra since 2015.

Kwong studied Music at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2004-2007) and King’s College London (2007-2008). In 2013, he earned his doctorate in Composition from The University of York under the supervision of Thomas Simaku, in the capacity of an R C Lee Scholar with full sponsorship from the Drs Richard Charles and Esther Yewpick Lee Charitable Foundation. Over the years, his artistic development has benefitted significantly through tutelages and masterclasses by Toshio Hosokawa, Francesco Filidei, Mauro Lanza and Oscar Bianchi, among others.

CHARLES KWONG’S WEBSITE