Cy Leo is a cross- genre chromatic harmonica virtuoso, composer, and singer song writer from Hong Kong. Received classical harmonica training from Lee Sheung Ching and Watani Yasuo, Leo’s talent in the harmonica has given him widespread international recognition and success.
Influenced by his father, PC Ho, founder of the Hong Kong Harmonica Association and the world-renowned King’s Harmonica Quintet, Leo became a consummate performer, winning his first international award as a harmonica soloist at the age of 10 at the Asia-Pacific Harmonica Festival. By the age of nineteen, he had accumulated 17 international titles including Solo World Champion twice at the World Harmonica Festivals of 2009 and 2013.
Since his appearance on the world harmonica scene, Leo has appeared as a guest performer and adjudicator at numerous internationally recognized harmonica events including The Seoul International Harmonica Festival and The Asia Pacific International Harmonica Festival. In addition, Leo was invited to compose for the Test Piece Solo Category in the World Harmonica Festival of 2017 where he also served as one of its adjudicators.
Since his graduation from the Polytechnic University in 2016, he has been touring frequently across the globe. Leo has toured in over 40 cities as a headline harmonica soloist on 7 international cruise lines including the prestigious Seabourn, Oceania and Royal Caribbean cruises. Since 2018, Leo has been invited by the Hong Kong government to perform as Hong Kong representative artist in over 10 cities including Kazakhstan, Bangkok, Singapore, London and ChengDu. In 2022, he performed at one of the world biggest stages, the New York Times Square Ball drop show broadcasted to billions of audience across the globe.
Closer to home, Leo has collaborated with many A-list local HK artists including Joey Yung, Sandy Lam, Lowell Lo, Hacken Lee, Leo Ku and Louis Koo, and has launched and continues to direct the Hong Kong City University harmonica team. Leo has also appeared at two of the biggest music festivals in Hong Kong, including the 32nd Hong Kong Arts Festival and Clockenflap 2016. Widely recognized as one of Hong Kong’s foremost musical talents, Leo’s has appeared frequently on regional media, including the CCTV 1, TVB, Pearl TV, Ming Pao Daily News, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Economic Journal, Metropop, and the RMM Journal. The rising star has also attracted unprecedented collaboration with commercials brands including Krug, Bose, Etro, Initial Fashion, Shell, Fortune Pharmacal etc.
Despite being widely recognised and favoured as a harmonica aficionado, Leo feels compelled to excel by starting his entrepreneurial voyage. He has co-founded an instrumental music label Ginger Muse to promote original instrumental music in Hong Kong. Within two years since 2018, Leo has released two albums including the ‘Lost In Time’ and ‘Angel & Demon’ with the support from a series of successful crowdfunding campaign. His debut performance ‘Lost In Time’ also received an overwhelmingly positive response from the local public, attaining a promising box that reached out to over a thousand paid audience members. He was later awarded as the Young Artists of the 14th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards in 2020. In the same year, Leo was also awarded a full scholarship from Hong Kong Jockey Club Music And Dance Fund to study at New York University master program of Jazz Performance.
Recently in 2020, Leo’s recordings attracted extensive recognition when one of them appeared at a single,’ Face to Face’, by the well-known Australian singer-songwriter Ruel. He also appeared at numerous movie including ‘This Is Not What I Expected’ starring Takeshi Kaneshiro , ‘Chasing the Dragon’ starring Donnie Yan etc. In Lowell Lo’s concert, ‘Beyond Imagination’ in 2017, at the Hong Kong Coliseum with over ten thousand concert-goers, Lowell acknowledged Leo on stage as ‘the best harmonica player in the world’. He is now the Co-Artistic Director of Music Lab.
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