Leon Chu

Born in a grassroot family, Leon Chu did not receive any formal music training during his teens. His first encounter with Mahler’s Symphonies ignited his interest in music, leading him to pursue his musical studies, starting with the Centralised Scheme of Music Training for Senior Secondary Students, and percussion studies with Choy Lap-tak. Upon his admission to the Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he participated in a number of choruses and orchestras, and studied vocal under Albert Lim. He later studied choral conducting under renowned European masters including Kåre Hanken, Theodora Pavlovitch, and Gábor Hollerung. In 2014, Chu attained the Master degree of Choral Conducting from the University of Saint Joseph, Macau, under the tutelage of Colin Mawby, Nancy Telfer and Pedro Monteiro. He furthered his vocal studies under Myra Chih in recent years.

In 2006, Leon Chu took up the position as the Music Director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Chorus (CU Chorus). Under his direction, the chorus gave many performances from local to overseas concert stages, including mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand. He conducted CU Chorus in their first commercial recording, "Spring Breeze Kisses My Face — The Choral Music of Jan Tien-hao", which was soon awarded as one of the Best Sales Releases (Classical and Operatic Works Recording) in the IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Award 2014. His second album with CU Chorus in 2019, "Sing Our Own Song — Selected Hong Kong Choral Works in Cantonese", is also widely acclaimed. Apart from CU Chorus, he also conducts various choirs in Hong Kong. As an experienced chorus master, Chu collaborated with Yan Huichang and Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra on their symphonic choral concerts, and was invited by Siam Philharmonic as the guest chorus master in their performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection".

Chu started contributing CD reviews to HiFi Review magazine from his university years. His review writings are published on Chinese newspapers and magazines including Hong Kong Economic Journal, Hong Kong Economic Times, Ming Pao Daily, MUZIK of Taiwan, and Shanghai Artists. He also annotated and translated the house programmes for Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and Premiere Performances of Hong Kong, and was invited as guest host for Arts News programme on RTHK Radio 4. His recent writings are uploaded on his blog leonchu.net, and contributed to online sites such as Stand News, VJMedia and International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong), covering various topics including critiques, topics on music and even anecdotes about Hong Kong music history. Apart from music, he is the co-author of the book 60 Keywords in Cultural Studies with Stephen Chu Yiu-Wai and Anthony Chan.

Source: Leon Chu