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Speakers

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(Listed in order of Surname)

 

Robyn Archer AO

 

Robyn Archer AO

Artistic Director, The Light in Winter (Federation Square, Melbourne);
Deputy Chair, Australia Council for the Arts;
Member, Council for Australian and Latin American Relations (COALAR);
Helpmann Award Winner: Best Cabaret Performer 2013

Robyn Archer is a singer (Helpmann Award winner, Best Cabaret Performer 2013), writer (selected speeches, Detritus, published by UWA Press), and artistic director (currently of The Light in Winter, which she created for Federation Square, Melbourne; recently Creative Director of the Centenary of Canberra and formerly the Adelaide, Melbourne, and Ten Days on the Island festivals).

Archer is Deputy Chair of The Australia Council, patron of numerous arts organizations and a mentor for the European Festivals Association’s Atelier. She is an Officer of the Order of Australia, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), Officer of the Crown (Belgium), and holds honorary doctorates from Flinders University (SA) and the Universities of Sydney and Canberra.

 

Professor Batu

 

Professor Batu

President,
National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts

Professor Batu, holder of a Doctoral degree in Law and a PhD supervisor, is currently Vice President of the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, taking charge of the institution’s academic programs, personnel, academic research, postgraduate education, and research institutes.  His key research interests cover areas including economic sociology and arts education management.  He is also a member of the National Steering Committee on Postgraduate Education for Professional Degree Holders in Fine Arts, President of the Research Association of Chinese Arts Institutions on the Education of the Theory of Ideology and Politics, and a member of the Social Science Federation of Beijing.

 

Hilary Boulding

 

Hilary Boulding

Principal,
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

Hilary Boulding is the Principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, which trains 700 young artists in Music, Acting, Musical Theatre, Stage Management, Theatre Design, and Arts Management.  75% of its students come from outside Wales, from around 30 countries.  In 2013, the College was ranked as the top Drama training programme in the UK and within the top five Music conservatoires in the Guardian University League Tables.

Since graduating with a degree in Music from St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, Boulding has worked in a variety of roles in arts and broadcasting. Between 1999-2007 she was Director of Music at Arts Council England, with responsibility for shaping and implementing a national music strategy within the publicly-funded arts sector in the UK.

From 1978 to 1999 Boulding was employed as a programme maker with the BBC, producing and directing a wide range of Music and Arts programming for radio and television. In 1992 she established a new BBC Arts and Music Department in Cardiff to serve Wales and the UK across the full breadth of arts disciplines.  She was Commissioning Editor, Music Policy, at BBC Radio 3 from 1997-1999, responsible for commissioning music and speech programmes.

Dr. Chan Hing Yan

 

Dr. Chan Hing Yan

Professor and Chairperson,
Department of Music, The University of Hong Kong

CHAN Hing-yan currently Chairs the Music Department of The University of Hong Kong. His compositions, lauded for their subtle incorporation of Chinese elements, have been heard around the world at festivals such as the Second Spring of the Chinese Symphony, Beijing (2010), Edinburgh Festival (2009), Chinese Musicians Residency, Cornell (2009), Hommage a Bartók, Budapest (2006), International Gaudeamus Music Week, Amsterdam (2003), Melbourne Festival (2002), and Singapore Arts Festival (2002 & 2006). Recent works include Heart of Coral, a chamber opera in three acts, commissioned by the 41st Hong Kong Arts Festival (2013) and 'Twas the Thawing Wind for sheng and orchestra, commissioned by the Hong Kong Sinfonietta for its North American tour (2012). His three collaborations with the City Contemporary Dance Company (The Conqueror, 2005; Warrior Lanling, 2007; Dao Extraordinaire, 2009) have won him much acclaim as well as a Hong Kong Dance Award in 2008, when he also received commendation for "Persons with Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Arts and Culture" in the Secretary for Home Affairs' Commendation Scheme of that year.

 

Chiang Ching

 

Chiang Ching

Film Actress, Dancer, Choreographer, Director, Writer and First Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Dance Company

Throughout her decades-long art career, Chiang Ching has won fame as an actress, dancer, choreographer, director, writer and stage designer.  Her first encounter with art came at the age of 10 when she left Shanghai for 6 years of dance education and training at Beijing Dance Academy.

As an actress, Chiang took a lead role in more than 20 HK and Taiwan movies in the 1960s, during which she also worked as a choreographer in several film productions.  Her stardom came to the culmination in 1967 when she was crowned the Best Actress at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Awards.

In 1970, Chiang went to the US where she started to embrace the art of modern dance.  Her own dance troupe was established in New York in 1973 and it continued to operate until 1985.  As a solo dancer and choreographer, Chiang and her troupe travelled around the world and were frequently invited to perform in international arts festivals and events.  She was the first-ever Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Dance Company (1982-1984) and has subsequently taught at renowned institutions such as UC Berkeley, Hunter College (New York), Danshögskolan (Sweden) and Beijing Dance Academy.

Following her migration to Sweden in 1985, Chiang has, on a freelance basis, engaged herself heavily in dance creation and solo dance performances around the world, as well as directing opera, drama and stage plays.  It was at that time she began to diversify her art pathway through attempts in different disciplines on a combination of different media.  Her own dance works and productions have been staged in prestigious venues including New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Metropolitan Opera, The Old Vic in London, Dramaten (Sweden), Vienna Volksoper (Austria), The Bern City Theatre (Switzerland), Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin (Germany) and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

As a writer of drama and movie scripts, she was highly productive in the 1990s and her screenplay Childhood won an Outstanding Award in Taiwan in 1993.

On top of script writing, she has also published several books including her own memoir Past Events, Past Time and Past Thoughts (1991), My Artistic Career (2010) and Old Friends, Old Stories (2013).

Chiang now mainly resides in Sweden and New York.

 

Dr. Peggy Chiao

 

Dr. Peggy Chiao 

Professor, School of Film and New Media                                                 Taipei National University of the Arts

Widely praised for spearheading the “Taiwan New Wave Movement”, Peggy has played a key role to promote Taiwan cinema worldwide.  Both a filmmaker and script writer, she participated in the production of a long queue of award-winning Mainland, Taiwanese and HK films including Beijing Bicycle, Blue Gate Crossing, Hear Me, Empire of Silver, Betelnut Beauty, HHH: Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Love you 10000, Center Stage, The Drummer, Pingguo, Buddha Mountain, Datong: The Great Society, Cherish, Thief, The Stolen Years and Love Speaks.

Currently a professor in Creative Filmmaking at the Taipei National University of the Arts, Peggy devotes much of her energy to educating potential script writers and directors.  Under her chairmanship, several ground-breaking initiatives were introduced to reform the prominent Taipei’s Golden Horse Film Festival. These included a revamped selection mechanism to enhance international representation and diversity, the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) and live broadcast of the Awards Ceremony on CCTV’s Movie Channel.  She is frequently invited to sit on the jury panel of well-established industry awards such as the Berlinale, as well as other most reputable film festivals including Venice, Rotterdam, San Sebastian, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, San Francisco, Yamagata, Hong Kong, Singapore, Toshkent, Sydney, Russia and Fukuoka, and has attended many academic conferences at top universities like Yale, Chicago, UC Berkeley, Harvard and UCLA, sometimes in the capacity of invited speaker.  In 1993, she headed a massive, year-round program to help train local professionals in the fields of film production, sound engineering, photography, arts design, animation and acting, and many of these trainees are still at the forefront of the industry.  Other initiatives of this Program included publishing of a book series on the history of Taiwan’s movie industry, organizing dozens of film festivals overseas to showcase Taiwanese movies, and establishing a database for Taiwan’s productions.  These efforts proved to have provided a solid base from which the industry grows and prospers.

Academically, Peggy is the author of more than 80 books and a William Randolph Hearst Fellow at her alma mater UT Austin.  Her contributions to and achievements in the film industry are well-recognized by the numerous honors she has received so far, such as Southern Metropolis Daily’s ‘Award for Ten-year Excellence in Film Industry’, the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the Osian’s Cinefan Asian Film Festival, the People Magazine’s ‘Lady of the Year Award’, and the ‘Award for Excellence’ at the Taipei Film Festival 2013.  She was also selected ‘one of the 200 most influential figures in Taiwan in 2000’ by the Commonwealth Bi-weekly.

Her ongoing video website talk show “Focus” is gaining much popularity and media attention.

Professor Anita Donaldson OAM

 

Professor Anita Donaldson OAM

Dean, College of Allied Arts,
The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

With extensive international experience in dance, education and the humanities, Professor Anita Donaldson has played a major role in the development of both undergraduate and postgraduate conservatoire-based dance programmes: as Dean of Performing Arts at the University of Adelaide (Australia); Head of Research and Postgraduate Studies at Laban (London); and as the inaugural Head of Academic Studies/Coordinator of the MFA in Dance at the Academy. She has held key positions on state and national advisory and funding bodies in Australia, and continues to contribute internationally to the field in numerous capacities. She completed her doctoral studies in dance at Laban in 1993; and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to dance and the performing arts as a practitioner, teacher, and researcher in 2003. She was Dean of Dance                                                                        at the Academy before being appointed Dean of College.

 

Dr. David Jiang

 

Dr. David Jiang

Former Dean of Drama,
The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Born in Shanghai, Dr. David Jiang worked in China from the late 1960s to 1989 as a professional actor and director in both theatre and television. During the 1980s, he also taught at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. In 1989, he was awarded a grant from the Asian Cultural Council to observe theatre activities and education at Yale and New York University in USA. He went on to be a visiting scholar in Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

He received his PhD in 1997 at Leeds University, England, where he was also a foundation research fellow. Then he went on to teach at National Taipei University of the Arts, and later at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York. In 2001 he was appointed the Dean of the School of Drama, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, leading the School for eight years until his retirement in 2009. Other positions include Visiting Professor of both Shanghai Theatre Academy and Beijing‘s Central Academy of Drama, Honorary Professor of the University of Hong Kong, and Visiting Research Fellow of Leeds University.

Dr. Jiang directed a number of productions in the USA, UK, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, including classical masterpieces, contemporary plays, musicals, and Chinese operas.

 

Lai Yu Man, Maurice

 

Lai Yu Man, Maurice

Vice President,
Utopia Cantonese Opera Workshop

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Lai graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a Diploma in Technical Arts (TV/Film) in 1996. Lai has been working in video art, dance, Chinese opera, and cuisine. His works won the Jumping Frames Dance Video Competition 2004, Gold Award of Best Holiday/Seasonal Promo in PROMAX ASIA 2005, selected by Festival de Cannes 2013 'Short Film Corner'. In 2012, ReelDance Moving Image Collection (MIC) of Australia selected his dance video A Cup of Tea as part of its collection archived in University of New South Wales in Sydney.

He is Vice President and Co-ordinator (Technical Support) of Utopia Cantonese Opera Workshop, Creative Director of HoShunKing Creative Workshop, Director of Unlock Dancing Plaza, Director of Tim's Kitchen Co. Ltd and Group Managing Director of Tim's Kitchen.

 

Professor Wenhai Ma

 

Professor Wenhai Ma

Head of Department and Principle Lecturer,
Department of Theatre, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA)

Professor Wenhai Ma graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Scene & Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon University, USA and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Scene Design from the Central Academy of Drama, China.

He is a long-time Chinese-American Professor of Scene and Costume Design, primarily teaching in the USA over the past 30 years. Before joining NAFA in 2011, he served as Chair of Scene Design, Senior Designer, and Master Teacher in the Department of Theatre at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, where he was granted tenure Professorship. He also served as Head of Theatre Design at Duke University, USA for 11 years. His other teaching posts include at Purdue University, the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in USA, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and the Central Academy of Drama, China.

He has designed a great number of productions in the USA and Asia. He is the author of textbook: Scene Design: Rendering and Media (Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co., USA, 2012). He has also illustrated numerous picture books published in the USA, the UK, and Canada. His research in theatre design education and art was recognized through inclusion in Who’s Who among Asian Americans in 1995. His upcoming textbook Designing the Scene is proposed for publishing in the USA in 2015.

 

Professor Clarence Mark

 

Professor Clarence Mak

Head of Composition and Electronic Music,
School of Music,
The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Born in Hong Kong, Clarence Mak’s musical life started from playing guitar in Hong Kong’s New Music Concert Series in the 1970s and continued through today as composer and guitarist as well as lecturer and giving demonstrations at various institutes. He played the complete guitar concerto Aranjuez by Jaoquin Rodrigo as soloist with the Macau Chamber Orchestra (1986 and 1987), and Henze’s El Cimaron in ensemble with voice, flute, and percussion at International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) Festival (1988).  He was visiting artist at University of Missouri, Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and Professor at the International Summer Course in Monthureux Le Sec, France.

Mak studied composition and electronic music at Chinese University of Hong Kong and Pennsylvania State University (BA and MMus), guitar performance at Musica En Compostela in Spain, and musical acoustics and programming at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.

His compositions include electronic and multi-media as well as music for local and overseas ensemble groups, orchestras, dramas, and dances and have been featured in concerts and festivals including at Contemporary Music Festival (London), the International Computer Music Symposium (Taiwan), ISCM New Music Festivals (Romania, Hong Kong), ICMC Computer Music Festival (Beijing), Electronic Music Festival (USA), Percussion Music Festival (Germany), and Asian Pacific World Music Days (Korea, Japan, New Zealand).

Commissioned works include for groups such as Insomnio (Netherlands), Zurich Ensemble, Sweden Oboe Trio, Hamburg New Music Ensemble, and numerous Chinese and Western groups in Hong Kong including Kings Harmonica Quintet, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, City Contemporary Dance Company, Chung Ying Theatre Company.

Mak takes part in promoting music making and related educational activities as advisor, committee member, delegate, Jury member,producer of projects for international festivals, in posts for Hong Kong Composers' Guild from 1987 to 2008 including Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice Chairman, and now serves as Council Director and on organizing committees for major musical events. Adjudicator for Kazimierz Serocki International Composers’ Competition (Poland), International Computer Music Conference's Commission Awards, chief delegate to present Hong Kong composers' works in Asian-Pacific Music Festival (New Zealand),International Rostrum (Paris, Dublin), and the ISCM Festival (Belgium), as well as keynote speaker and lecturer at international conferences, he also provides training to music teachers and talks for Hong Kong Education Bureau, Central Library, and Music Office. 

Professor Mak Su Yin

 

Professor Mak Su Yin

Professor, Department of Music,
The Chinese University of Music

Mak Su Yin holds a B.A. in English literature and Music from the University of Toronto, an M.A. in Musicology from Queens College, City University of New York, and a double Ph.D. in Musicology and Music Theory from the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.  Her approach to musical scholarship is interdisciplinary in nature, and explores the relationship between musical structure and expression in tonal music. Research areas include Schenkerian analysis, text-music relations, musical semiotics, and the history of music theory.  Her recent work has focused on the music of Schubert and Schumann, and her articles have been published in top-ranked journals such as the Journal of Musicology and Eighteenth-Century Music, and major academic presses such as Ashgate and Publications de la Sorbonne. She is recipient of the 2008 Emerging                                                               Scholar Award from the Society for Music Theory.

 

Fredric Mao

 

Fredric Mao

Chair,
School of Chinese Opera, HKAPA

Fredric Mao joined the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) as Head of Acting at its inception in 1985, and was responsible for training a few generations of local talents. He was the Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre (2001-2008) and was bestowed the honour of “Director Laureate” upon his departure. In 2004, Mao received the Bronze Bauhinia Star from the Government of the HKSAR in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the local performing art scene. He is the Founder/Director of Performing Arts Asia, and serves as Deputy Chairman of the HKAPA Council, and Convener of Hong Kong/Taiwan Cultural Cooperation Committee.

 

Dr. Amanda Morris

 

Dr. Amanda Morris

Dean, Faculty of Performing Arts,
LASALLE College of the Arts

Amanda Morris is Dean of the Faculty of Performing Arts at LASALLE College of the Arts, a leading contemporary arts institution in Singapore. Formerly she was the Director of the Centre for Fine Arts, Music and Theatre at Canterbury University in New Zealand, and prior to that, Head of Open Program and of New Media at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). In her early career she was a freelance theatre director. She is a graduate of the NIDA Directors course and has a PhD in English Literature from Sydney University.

Amanda is known for her work developing highly successful new and innovative education programs in the performing arts in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, and recently developed the MA Artist Educator for LASALLE.  She has also made an impact by integrating new technologies and interactivity with performing arts on a performative level, in screen-based entertainment, and in educational programs.  For NIDA she produced the British Academy award-winning CD-Rom, StageStruck, and co-produced (with the Australian Film Television and Radio School) Byte Sized Theatre and LoveCuts, Australia’s first interactive drama for broadband. Her current research focuses on the development of New Works in performing arts.

 

Dr. Wankwan Polachan

 

Dr. Wankwan Polachan

Assistant Professor and Lecturer, Fine and Applied Arts Division,
Mahidol University International College

Dr. Wankwan Polachan is currently an Assistant Professor and a Lecturer at the Fine and Applied Arts Division, Mahidol University International College. Prior to this position, she was a Chairperson and a Lecturer at the Department of Performing Arts, Faculty of Communication Arts, Bangkok University, Thailand. She received her BA in Dramatic Arts from Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand; MA in Theatre Practice (Acting) from Goldsmiths College and PhD in Southeast Asian Studies from School of Oriental and African Studies, both from University of London, UK. She is a scholar in Southeast Asian performing arts with specialization in comic performance and the theatrical aesthetics of the region. Her publication includes a research paper entitled “Buddhism and Thai Comic Performance” in Asian Theatre Journal 2014 and “Postmodernism and Thai Theatre: Presentational vs. Representational”, a book chapter in Ethical Encounters: Boundaries of Theatre, Performance and Philosophy published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. She has presented research papers and participated in several prestigious conferences and workshops around the world including in St. Petersburg, Oxford, Leeds, Hawaii, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok. In 2013, she organized the highly successful international symposium Global Encounters in Southeast Asian Performing Arts: Conference, Workshops and Performances in which regional and international academics, practitioners, and theatre artists attended. As an artist Dr. Wankwan has performed in various renowned theatres both internationally such as The Young Vic Theatre, London; The Esplanade, Singapore; and Theatre Na Zabradli, Czech Republic, and nationally at Aksra Theatre and Thailand Cultural Centre, Bangkok. Her main acting interest is to find the proper balance in the mixture between a Western modern acting philosophy and an Eastern traditional improvised method, which is also a central focus of her current book.

 

Dr. Emma Redding

 

Dr. Emma Redding

Head of Dance Science,
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

Dr. Emma Redding is Head of Dance Science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Dr. Redding originally trained as a dancer and performed with the company Tranz Danz, Hungary and for Rosalind Newman in Hong Kong. She teaches contemporary dance technique at Trinity Laban and lectures in exercise physiology alongside her management and research work.

Dr. Redding was Principal Investigator for the Centres for Advanced Training project, The Identification and Development of Dance Talent in Young People, a three-year longitudinal study funded by the Department of Education and the Leverhulme Trust. She was also Principal Investigator of the research project, Music & Dance Science: Optimising Performing Potential that involved the assessment of areas of the health and fitness of undergraduate vocational music and dance students. He other research projects have measured scientifically, the impact of dance on the health and well-being of other populations.

Emma has published her work in academic journals such as the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, High Ability Studies and The International Learning Journal. She is a member of the Board of Directors and Past President of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) and represents Trinity Laban as a partner of the National Institute for Dance Medicine and Science.

 

Professor Leon Rubin

Professor Leon Rubin

Director, East 15 Acting School,
University of Essex

* Professor Leon Rubin is also the moderator of the session -
Building Connections, Global Creativity and the Chinese Diaspora

Leon Rubin is a member of the Directors’ Guild of Great Britain, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Asiatic Society. He has an Honorary Professorship of the GITIS University, Moscow. He is a former Associate at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, who began his career as Assistant Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company and has been Artistic Director of three major UK theatre companies including Bristol Old Vic. He is author of The Nicholas Nickleby Story (the making of the RSC production) and Performance in Bali, published by Routledge.

He has directed productions throughout the world in Canada, China, Thailand, Japan, Greece, USA, Ireland, Chile, and Hong Kong, as well as throughout the UK. He has also trained and lectured actors and directors in Russia, Spain, Korea, France, Holland, and the Philippines. In the last few years, he directed a series of Shakespeare productions for the Stratford Festival Theatre, Canada, and a major Japanese theatre company, Bungaku-Za. He is director of a major show in Thailand, which has been performed in a 3,000 seat theatre for the past 15 years. He has also directed in the West End and in New York.

 

Professor Bright Sheng

 

Professor Bright Sheng

The Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Music,
School of Music, Theater and Dance, University of Michigan;
Y K Pao Visiting Professor,  Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

The MacArthur Fellow, Professor Bright Sheng was born on 6 December 1955, in Shanghai, China, and moved to New York in l982. He is currently the Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor at University of Michigan, and the Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Aaron Copland School of Music of Queens College, CUNY.

Sheng has collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schwarz, David Robertson, David Zinman, Neeme Järvi, Robert Spano, Hugh Wolff, Yo Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, Emanuel Ax, Chao-Liang Lin, Yefim Bronfman, Evelyn Glennie, among others. He has been widely commissioned and his work performed by virtually all important musical institutions in North America, Europe and Asia, including the White House, the 2008 Beijing International Olympic Games, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra de Paris, London BBC Symphony, Hamburg Radio Symphony, Danish National Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet.

Exclusively published by G. Schirmer Inc. in New York City, he can also be heard on Naxos, Sony Classical, Talarc, Delos, Koch International, New World labels and Grammofon AB BIS.

His music ranges from dramatic to lyrical and is strongly influenced by the folk and classical music tradition from eastern and central Asia. Since 2000, he has been studying and researching the music phenomenon of the Silk Road culture. He has also served as the Artistic Advisor to Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project Inc.

As a conductor and pianist, he has performed with, in the USA, the San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seattle Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic in Russia, Dortmund Philharmonic in Germany, Hong Kong Philharmonic, China National Symphony, among others, and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and many other international performing arts centers.

Since 2011, he has been the Founder and Artistic Director of The Intimacy of Creativity — The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong, an annual two-week workshop with new approach to creativity.

 

Professor Sun Huizhu (William Sun)

 

Professor Sun Huizhu (William Sun)

Professor, Shanghai Theatre Academy;
Consortium Editor, TDR (New York)

Sun Huizhu (William) is Professor, Shanghai Theatre Academy and Consortium Editor, TDR, The Drama Review (New York). His recent publications include Reinventing Western Classics as Chinese Operas, Theatre in Construction and Deconstruction, Conflicts on Stage and Clash of Civilizations, Social Performance Studies, and What to Imitate? What to Express: a New Study of Chinese and Western Arts and Aesthetics. He has published over 150 Chinese/English papers. Plays such as China Dream, The Old B Hanging on the Wall, Tomorrow He’ll be Out of the Mountains, Gods and the Good Woman, Queue, Shalom Shanghai; Beijing operas King Oedipus, Miss Julie, and Lost Dream of the Red Chamber; Yue operas Hedda and The Lady from the Sea seen in a dozens of countries. Sun created the Chinese opera series Confucius Disciples, presented by actors/students from a growing number of nations.

 

Professor Tang Jianping

Professor Tang Jianping

Professor of Composition,
Central Conservatory of Music

Tang Jianping, Professor of Composition at the Central Conservatory, is one of the most active composers in China today. His musical compositions are varied and comprise all kinds of musical genres. Many of these works have become classics and are performed consistently in concerts on a regular basis.

His major representative works include the opera Song of Youth, dance drama Shaolin in the Wind, musicals Colourful Clouds Floating Across the Hill and Love Warms Tian Shan, large scale Buddhist chant symphony Shen Zhou Harmonious Joy, large scale Mongolian historical symphonic poem Genghis Khan, large scale nationalistic symphonic poem dramas Cowherd and Weaving Maid and Yang OuSha, oratorios White Horse Entering Sea of Reed Flowers and Road, pipa concerto Spring and Autumn, symphonic concerto Olympic Fire 2008, percussion concerto CangCai, dizi concerto FeiGe, guqin concerto Cloud Water, nationalistic orchestral music HouTu, Nonet Xuan Huang, string quartet Cui Zhuo, in addition to guqin music written for John Woo’s movie Red Cliff, and music for CCTV’s television documentary Forbidden Palace.

He has received numerous awards from many competitions such as the highest level of contests in national symphonic music contests, while at the same time he is also a recipient of First Prize Award of China’s National Excellence in Teaching, as well as Education Ministry’s Bao Gang Excellent Teacher Special Prize, among others.

 

Tang Shu Wing

 

Tang Shu Wing

Artistic Director,
Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio

Renowned theatre director, actor, drama educator and yoga teacher, former Dean of the School of Drama of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Tang was trained as an actor in l’Ecole de la Belle de Mai and awarded a MaÎtrise Diplôme in Theatre Studies from the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.

An advocate of physical theatre and minimalist aesthetics, his self-developed pre-verbal expressions have trained a new generation of Hong Kong actors and directly contributed to some of his recent creations including Titus Andronicus, Titus Andronicus 2.0Detention, Thunderstorm and Why aren’t you Steve Jobs?.

Dubbed “Alchemist of Minimalist Theatre” and “one of the most talented theatre directors of Hong Kong” by the media, his works have been presented in many cities in the world including Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

Tang’s major awards include three times Best Director in the Hong Kong Drama Awards, Award for Arts Achievement (Drama) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the Chief Executive’s Commendation for Community Service Award, l’Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Award for Best Artist (Drama) by The Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2012, The Outstanding Achievement in Direction for Dance by 2013 Hong Kong Dance Awards and Honorary Fellow of Lingnan University 2013.

He is the chairperson of the Festivals Committee of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (Hong Kong) and an honorary advisor of the Hong Kong Dance Company.

 

Professor Adrian Walter

 

Professor Adrian Walter

Director,
The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

Professor Adrian Walter AM has had a distinguished career in music education for over 30 years. He has served as a music educator, conductor, soloist, and has been a life-long advocate of the importance of community engagement through music education.

A graduate of Adelaide University’s Elder Conservatorium of Music, Professor Walter began his career in tertiary music education at the Charles Darwin University, where he was the founder and Artistic Director of the world-renowned Darwin International Guitar Festival. For over fourteen years, the Festival attracted the world’s leading classical guitarists to Australia, commissioned numerous new works from leading Australian and emerging composers, and helped launch the careers of some of Australia’s most outstanding classical musicians.

Professor Walter has held several senior managerial positions in the tertiary music education sector. As Head of the School of Creative Arts and Humanities at Charles Darwin University, he developed both academic and vocationally oriented programs that balanced the requirements of elite music education with local cultural enrichment. He established successful youth music programmes, the Darwin Chamber Orchestra and was a passionate supporter of Australian Indigenous music making. As a senior manager in his role as the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Business and Arts at Charles Darwin University, Professor Walter oversaw major developments in a broad range of discipline areas including the Creative and Performing Arts.

From 2009 to 2012 he was Professor of Music, and Head of the School of Music at the Australian National University. In this position, he established educational partnerships with world-class international tertiary music institutions and initiated cutting edge modes of delivery and course programmes, including live streaming of master classes and innovative approaches to authentic learning with strong links to the professions.

Professor Walter has remained active as a classical guitarist alongside his managerial career. As a leading expert in the area of historically informed performance practice, he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world on original early 19th century guitars. He has worked internationally presenting master classes and as artist in residence at such institutions as the Central Conservatorium of Music in Beijing and the Conservatorium of Music in Krakow.

Professor Walter’s distinguished contributions to Australia’s cultural landscape were recognized in 2009 when he was invested as a Member of the Order of Australia, for “service to the arts, particularly in the area of classical guitar performance and musical composition through the Darwin International Guitar Festival, to music education, and as a supporter of emerging performers.”

Professor Walter moved to Hong Kong in 2012 to take up the position of Director of The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. Since his arrival he has worked closely with stakeholders in developing the Academy’s strategic ‘road map’ for its next ten years of development launched as part of the Academy’s 30th Anniversary celebrations. This plan capitalizes on the Academy’s unique location in China and as one of Asia’s most dynamic and culturally diverse cities, its rich cross disciplinary learning environment, and its focus on original creativity through embracing innovative approaches to performing arts education. It also recognizes the importance of the Academy’s close links to industry and its key role in enriching the cultural life of the Hong Kong community. He wants to ensure that Academy graduates are well prepared to take their role as the next generation of performing artists and cultural leaders in Hong Kong and within a global community of practice.

Professor Walter is focused on ensuring that the Academy continues to thrive both locally and internationally in a continuously evolving global higher education and cultural environment.

 

Professor Wang Cizhao

 

Professor Wang Cizhao

President,
Central Conservatory of Music

Professor Wang, President of the Central Conservatory of Music and a PhD supervisor of the institute, is a renowned expert in music studies and music educator who has made scholarly contributions to China. He has authored eight books including Basics of Music Aesthetics and New Theory of Music Aesthetics and published around 200 essays and articles including The Structure and Function of Music and A Study of Music Aesthetics: A Value Theory Perspective.  He is a frequent recipient of awards and prizes such as the National Award for Teaching Excellence (Class 1), the Beijing Municipal Award for Teaching Excellence (Class 1), the First Class Award for Theoretical Review at the “Golden Bell Awards” for Chinese Music, the Award for Chinese Literary Review (Class 1), the Award for Excellence in Humanities and Social Sciences and the Outstanding Textbook Award presented respectively by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Culture, as well as the Beijing Municipal Award for Outstanding Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences of Middle-aged and Young Teachers.  His course entitled “The Basic Issues of Music Aesthetics” is also on the list of China’s Quality OCW.

A holder of Yale’s Sanford Medal, Professor Wang also has an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.  Apart from serving on the CPPCC National Committee and its Committee for Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports, he is Director, Steering Committee on Professional Arts Education at National Higher Art Institutes under the Ministry of Education, Vice-chair of the Association of Chinese Musicians and Director of its Committee of Theory, as well as Chief Editor of People’s Music.

 

Dr. Liza Wang

 

Dr. Liza Wang

Chairman,
The Chinese Artist Association of Hong Kong

Dr. Liza Wang, who has fully pledged herself to performing arts for over 45 years, is a celebrity actress and Cantonese opera artist in Hong Kong. Her involvement in Cantonese opera began in the 1970s. Since then, Dr. Wang has put much effort into the preservation of the traditional essence of Cantonese Opera while at the same time being creative and innovative in order to raise the standard of this genre of performing arts. She has starred in both classical and newly written/adapted Cantonese operas. One of her recent works, which received high acclaim, is De Ling and Empress Dowager Ci Xi, a modern Cantonese Opera adapted from a stage play.

She has been elected Chairperson of the Chinese Artist Association of Hong Kong six times for her vision, commitment, and enthusiasm in promoting and developing Cantonese Opera. The identification of proper venues is one of her top agenda items.  Recently, she successfully urged the Government to revitalize the old Yau Ma Tei Theatre as a dedicated base for Chinese opera performances and talent training. It is also under her leadership that the Chinese Artist Association was selected as the Theatre’s Venue Partner for nurturing young Cantonese opera professionals both in front of, and behind the scene. Dr. Wang played a major role in ‘rescuing’ the Sunbeam Theatre to provide a regular venue for Cantonese opera performances. Now, she is actively engaged in developing the future Xiqu Center inside the West Kowloon Cultural District into a first-class performing venue in the Asian-Pacific region for Chinese operas.

Her achievements in artistic innovation and arts promotion have earned her numerous awards and honors. In 2004, she received the Silver Bauhinia Medal from the HKSAR Government. Other awards include the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award, World Outstanding Chinese Award, and an honorary Doctoral degree of Letters from the City University of Hong Kong (2007).  In 2009, Dr. Wang was conferred the Honorary Fellowship by the HKAPA, and is currently a member of the Performing Arts Committee under the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.  She has a heart for community service and is a former Hong Kong delegate to the National People’s Congress and member of the CPPCC.

 

Wang Yuanyuan

 

Wang Yuanyuan

Artistic Director and Choreographer
Beijing Dance Theatre

Born and raised in Beijing, Ms. Wang Yuanyuan is one of China’s leading modern dance choreographers. She prides herself on being rooted in Chinese traditions while at the same time producing innovative, authentic, and thoughtful contemporary dance works for the world stage. She started as a dancer at the age of 10 at the Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Dance Academy and continued to study choreography at Beijing Dance Academy where she later served as teacher. Between 2000 and 2002, she was further trained at the prestigious Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program at the California Institute of Arts (Cal Arts) School of Dance in Los Angeles, United States. In 1998, she was named resident choreographer of the National Ballet of China and successively staged Butterfly Lovers, Rainbow of the Night, Attraction, Lost Emotion, Fate, and a Chinese version of Nutcracker. Later on, she also choreographed a ballet version of Raise the Red Lantern for film director Zhang Yimou and the dance sequences for Tan Dun’s music in the film The Banquet for director Feng Xiaogang. Her works have been staged around the globe in the United States, Russia, Korea, France, Bulgaria, Denmark, Singapore, Australia, Greece, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico. In recognition of her excellence in choreography, she has been invited to serve as guest choreographer at New York City Ballet Choreography Institute, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (School of Dance), Royal Danish Ballet and Shanghai Ballet. Aside from her early award as dancer in Paris International Dance Competition, she has won “Best Choreographer” awards in Bulgaria Varna International Ballet Competition (IBC), US Jackson IBC, Moscow IBC and Shanghai IBC, which made her the one to win the most "Best Choreographer" awards internationally among Chinese choreographers. In 2008, she founded Beijing Dance Theater with veteran lighting designer Han Jiang and set designer Tan Shaoyuan. Diary of Empty Space was premiered the same year as their first creation, followed by Stirred from a Dream, Haze, Prism, The Color of Love, Martlet, Harvest, Golden Lotus and Hesitation.

 
Professor Xu Shuya

 

Professor Xu Shuya

Professor,
Shanghai Conservatory of Music

Xu Shuya, a composer residing in France, graduated from Shanghai Conservatory in 1983; in 1992 he was awarded the certificate of Premier Prix of senior composition class (Master’s degree), certificate of composition master class (Doctoral degree) of Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Dance de Paris in 1994. Xu Shuya is now professor of composition, former President of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, member of the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, director of Education Committee of the Chinese Musicians Association, and Vice President of Shanghai Overseas Returned Scholars Association.

His has won many important awards including the first prize of the composition competition held by Alexander Tcherepnine Foundation in New York in 1982, the first prize of the IXème Concours International de Composition Musicale de Besancon pour Orchestre Symphonique, second prize in the 15th International Composer Competition "Luigi Russolo" for Young Composer of Electronic Music ACL Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize in Tokyo, and the Best Annual Opera in 2005 award by the Opéra International in France.

His main works include: Emperor Kangxi and the Sun King Louis XIV (opera), Snow in August (opera), In Memory of Taiping Lake; (opera) Nirvana (symphony), Cristal au Soleil couchant (symphony), Infinite (symphony), Les Larmes de Marco Polo (ballet), L'Ame de Lamu (for soprano and ensemble), chamber music works: Chute en Automne, Danse/clairsemé San, Echos du Vieux Champ, In Nomine I, II, III; electronic works Taiyi II, Le mirage de Lamu, and Récit sur la Vieille Route among others. His works have been performed in France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Brazil, and China.

He was selected for inclusion in The New Grove Dictionary of World Music and Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Musicians. His works have been recorded and published by Kairos Record Production Company (Germany), SACEM/SACD Music Copyright Society (France), Zebra Record Company (Netherlands), and Luigi Russolo Foundation (Italy). His scores are published by Jobert & Lemoine Publishing House (France).

 

Professor Yang Hon-Lun (Helan Yang)

 

Professor Yang Hon-Lun (Helan Yang)

Professor, Department of Music,
Hong Kong Baptist University

Hon-Lun Helan Yang is professor of music at Department of Music, Hong Kong Baptist University. Professor Yang's research is cross-cultural and interdisciplinary, ranging from nineteenth-century American symphonic music to contemporary Chinese music both 'serious' and 'popular' in style and appeal.

She is the author of over 30 articles in such journals as Asian Music (2010), International Review of Aesthetics and Sociology of Music (2011), Music and Politics (2007), CHIME (2005), American Music (2003), and BLOK (2003) and book chapters in Music and Protest in 1968 (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Music and Politics (Ashgate, 2013), Music, Power, and Politics (Routledge, 2005), among others.

She is currently working on a number of projects: including co-editing with Michael Saffle a volume entitled East-West Music Encounters (University of Michigan Press), a tri-authored book with Simo Mikkonen and John Winzenburg on Russian musicians in Shanghai, her own projects on Cantopop cover songs in Hong Kong, and three Chinese composers, Wang Xilin, Zhu Jian'er, and Luo Zhongrong's symphonic journey.

 

Professor Zhang Xiao-xiong

 

Professor Zhang Xiao-xiong

Associate Professor of Dance,
School of Dance, Taipei National University of the Arts

Born in Cambodia and moved to China in his early teens Zhang Xiao-xiong earned the Bachelor of Arts degree from the History Department of Jinan University before immigrating to Australia in 1983.  He studied modern dance at the Centre for Performing Arts (Adelaide) and started a career as a professional dancer.

Professor Zhang danced with the One Extra Company (Sydney) from 1985–1987, the Australian Dance Theatre (Adelaide) from 1987–1992, and Vis-à-Vis 1994 1995. He performed in Jim Sharman's Shadow and Splendour (1992 – a joint production between the Royal Queensland Theatre Company and the State Theatre Company of South Australia).

Professor Zhang moved to Taipei in 1996 and took up the position as Associate Professor of the Dance College of the National Taipei University for the Arts and teacher of modern dance for the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. He joined the Taipei Crossover Dance Company in the same year.

His works have been premiered by companies such as Cloud Gate Dance Theater, Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company, Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Beijing Modern Dance Company, and Taipei Crossover Dance Company, and have also featured in the Adelaide Festival, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and the Singapore Festival.