Victor Chan Wai-Kwong
Victor Chan received his PhD degree from the university of York (UK) where he studied
from 1985 to 1988, under the British Council Scholarship and the British Commonwealth
Scholarship. Over the years, Chan is celebrated as an active composer, conductor and
contemporary music promoter. Apart from frequent local performances such as in the Hong
Kong Arts Festival and the Musicarama International New music Festival, Chan’s works
have been presented in many parts of the world and have represented Hong Kong on numerous
international occasions including the Asian Composers’ League Festivals, at the
UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers Conference (Paris), the International Composers
Festival (the Netherlands), the York Festival and Mystery Plays (UK), the Pacific Music
Festival (Sapporo), and the Stella Nova Tokyo Music Festival etc.
Chan is a prolific composer and has produced over 80 works to date. His compositions
range from opera, orchestral works, to numerous chamber works, choral pieces and songs,
may of which are published and released on CD. Important works by him in recent years
include Symphonic Psalms in Three Parts (Choral Symphony for soloists, mass choir,
and orchestra), Songs of Arial (opera in three acts), and Songs from
‘Shi-jing’ (song cycle for vocal ensemble). Most recently he concentrated
himself in writing orchestral music and conducting their performances. In the last
eighteen months, he produced five works for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra alone.
Following the premiere of Symphonic Prelude for Orchestra with Piano in January
1997, A Glimpse of Blue was taken on the Orchestra’s 1997 Beijng and Shanghai
Tour in May. The more substantial 1997 Symphonic Fantasia ‘Hui’
represented a major work to mark the historic reunification of Hong Kong with China, while
Fanfare for Orchestra was specially written for the 1997 WBF/IMF Annual Meetings,
the first major international event held in the newly established HKSAR. His latest work From
Within (in three movements) was premiered in July 1998 with great success.
Dr. Chan frequently appears as conductor in various concerts and has directed the
premieres of many contemporary works. He was the conductor and artistic advisor of the
1992 Hong Kong Choral Festival. In recent years, he has conducted the performances of over
20 performing groups, orchestras, and choirs, both locally and overseas. He was the
producer of several contemporary music series on the radio, including the weekly programme
on Hong Kong Composers at RTHK-4 from 1993-96. Since 1993, he has been serving as
vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild.
Dr. Chan’s current research interest is mainly in the area of contemporary vocal
music and the relationship between words and music. He has been teaching at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong since 1989, and was appointed Composer-in-Residence at the Hong
Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997. Recently he was granted the 1998 Ten Outstanding
Young Persons Award.