Professor Wing-Wah CHAN, JP
Prof. Chan is a music educator, composer and conductor. He was the first Resident Composer of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Seven of his eight Symphonies were published on CD by Hugo Productions performed by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and Voronezh State Symphony Orchestra in Russia, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. His over 200 compositions ranges from western and Chinese orchestral and chamber works to choral music, hymns and children songs. Some of his music scores were published locally and internationally including the People’s Music Publishing in Beijing.
Internationally he has received First Prize in the International Double Reed Society Composition Contest, USA; the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Award from the Asian Composers League, and the 20th Century Masterpiece Award by the China Culture Promotion Society, Beijing. Locally he received the Composer of the Year Award from the Hong Kong Artists' Guild (1991), the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award (1992), TVB Children Song Gold Award, CASH Golden Sail Music Awards 2004 and 2007.
His works had been performed in the International Society for Contemporary Music-World Music Days Festival in Stuttgart, Germany; Summer Music Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia; Trieste Prima Festival in Trieste, Italy; Alesander Tansman Music Festival in Lodz, Poland; Festival LIM 2Mil in Madrid and the Festival BBK in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; Klang-Klee Festival to commemorate Paul Klee in Winterthur and Bern, Switzerland; and music festivals in Argentina, Australia, USA, Canada, Russia, Romania, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines and Mainland China. His biography is included in the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians Online.
Prof. Chan is also the Music Director of the Hong Kong Oratorio Society(established in 1956) since 1995 and has been leading this choir with regular concerts and occasional concert tours to perform oratorios and other sacred masterpieces. In 2017 he brought the choir and orchestra to perform his Symphony No.8 for organ, choir and orchestra in the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with great success. The Hong Kong Government appointed him Justice of the Peace in 2000. He was invited to become a Council member of the Chinese Musicians Association in 2009.
Prof. Chan received BA in music from The Chinese University of Hong Kong studying composition with David Gwilt. On a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship, he finished his Master and Doctor of Music degrees from the University of Toronto studying composition with John Beckwith. From 1986-2006, he was Professor of Music, later Chairman of the Music Department and Associate Dean of Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. From 2007-2016 Dec, he was Deputy Director at the School of Professional And Continuing Education, The University of Hong Kong (HKU SPACE). He is now Vice-President (Academic) of the Centennial College (established by HKU), Adjunct Professor of CUHK, Senior Advisor of HKU SPACE, Chairman of the music copyright society the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong(CASH). He is also a Council member of the HK Chinese Orchestra and advisor to numerous groups.