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Orchestra Members
Chew Hee-chiat
Assistant Artistic Director and Resident Conductor
Chew Hee Chiat
Chew Hee-chiat

Assistant Artistic Director and Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Chew was the Principal Guest Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Macao Chinese Orchestra (2023-24 season). Chew joined the HKCO in 2002 as Assistant Conductor and took his current position in September 2022. Chew plays an active and diverse role that covers assisting in orchestral season planning and preparation for numerous concerts. In recent years, Chew is committed to the cross-disciplinary cooperation between Chinese music and other different sectors and media, including ‘Hins Cheung X HKCO’ in 2020, and in 2018, Chew conducted the ‘Listening to Nature’ concert, which had brought the music of Malaysia rainforest into Chinese music.Chew was widely acclaimed by the music circle and media when he led the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra on the debut tour to Malaysia in 2024. Chew guest-conducted the Taipei Chinese Orchestra in the concert ‘Zhuolu & Dreaming of Butterflies’ in 2023, and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in the concert ‘A Nanyang Musical Voyage II’ in 2004 and has received raved reviews.


To promote the development of local creations, Chew re-launched HKCO’s ‘Music from the Heart’, a stage for original composition, inspiring many outstanding local composers since 2015. Since 2007, Chew has conducted The Hong Kong Drum Festival concert for over 10 consecutive years. His work Let the Thunder of Drums Roll VII becomes the Festival standard repertoire.

Conducting aside, Chew’s works have characteristic features that demonstrate his Southeast Asian cultural heritage. His work Harken Back to Zhou is selected as one of the ‘100 Chinese Music Classics  Select’ by HKCO. He was second runner-up in the International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Compositions 2000 (HK) and winner of the Outstanding Composition Award in the Chinese Music Competition 2002 organised by the Council for Cultural Affairs in Taiwan. Graduated from the Southeast Missouri State University with a double bachelor’s degree in cello performance and computer science, and the University of South Carolina with a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting, Chew was formerly the Music Director of the Professional Cultural Center Orchestra of Malaysia.

Chew is also committed to the education and perpetuation of Chinse music. Since 2011, Chew has been giving lectures for The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts on Chinese orchestral conducting. In 2003 to 2010, he held a concurrent post of the conductor of the Hong Kong Junior Chinese Orchestra.

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Guest Resident Conductor
Sun Peng
Sun Peng
Guest Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Sun Peng is a Ph.D candidate and Associate Professor in Conducting at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, appointed under the Talent Introduction Scheme, currently serving as Deputy Head of Ethnic Instrumental Music; Director of the Centre for Teaching and Research in Composition, Arrangement and Chamber Music; Director of the Centre for Teaching and Research (Conducting) in the Department of Composition; and Principal Conductor of the Northern Traditional Orchestra of the Conservatory and the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra. Previously, Sun was the first Resident Conductor of the Macao Chinese Orchestra (2016 – 2019), the first Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Chinese orchestra of the Shanxi Song and Dance Troupe (2012 – 2014) and the first Guest Assistant Conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (2011 – 2012).

Sun was exposed to music at an early age and successively trained under Professor Sun You and Professor Wen Jialiang. Initiated by Professor Yu Hongxia in conducting, Sun received postgraduate training in Chinese Conducting under Professor Yan Huichang, an educator and also the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for Life of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, and graduated with flying colours. In 2019, he was a government-funded Visiting Scholar at the Department of Symphony and Opera Conducting of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory where his supervisor was Professor Stanislav Dyachenko. He completed his attachment with flying colours.

Sun Peng has worked with numerous orchestras, virtuosi and composers both in China and overseas, conducting hundreds of concerts in recent years. In 2011, at the first International Conducting Competition for Chinese Music held by HKCO, Sun Peng was placed first among 55 contestants and received the Prize for ‘Best Interpretation of Works of Hong Kong’. Sun successively conducted the HKCO concert ‘Champions in Concert’ in 2013, ‘Have Dizi, Will Travel’ in 2015 and ‘White Mountains, Black Waters – The Rustic Landscape of Northeastern China’ in 2019 – the first concert with the theme of Northeast China in the history of HKCO. His other achievements include Gold prize at the 2012 Festival of Traditional Music for Liaoning Arts Colleges, 8 gold and 2 silver awards for his leadership of the Shenyang Conservatory of Music Northern Folk Orchestra, and a Gold prize at a national arts competition for university students.
Rupert Woo Pak Tuen
Assistant Conductor of the HKCO and Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Young Chinese Orchestra
Rupert Woo Pak Tuen
Rupert Woo Pak Tuen

Assistant Conductor of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Young Chinese Orchestra. Graduated in 2012, Rupert Woo was the first Master in Conducting of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). In the Second International Conducting Competition for Chinese Music, Rupert won Second Prize as well as the Outstanding Young Conductor in Hong Kong Award and the Audience Award for the Most Popular Conductor. Previously, Rupert served as a Guest Instructor in Conducting at the Department of Traditional Chinese Musical Instruments of the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Resident Conductor of the Conservatory’s Chinese Orchestra, and Instructor on its postgraduate programme. He guest-conducted the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, the Macao Chinese Orchestra, the Henan National Music Orchestra, the Academy Chinese Orchestra and the Academy Symphony Orchestra of HKAPA, Fanyin Chamber Orchestra of the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble etc.

Rupert holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Computer Science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2005), a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in banhu performance from HKAPA (2008), and a Master of Music in banhu and gaohu performance from HKAPA (2010).

In 2018, Rupert became the Assistant Conductor (Education and Outreach) of HKCO through open recruitment, responsible for the conducting of the Hong Kong Young Chinese Orchestra, which is under the jurisdiction of the HKCO; he has planned and conducted the ‘Preservation and Perpetuation of the Classics’ concerts for years. Rupert conducted various HKCO concerts, including the Tour in Australia, ‘School Culture Day’ concert and ‘Our Cantopop’ concert in 2023 and ‘Trail of the Blue Dragon’ Community Concert in 2022.

Yuen Shi Chun
Research Fellow, Research and Development Department
Research & Development Officer (Musical Instrument)
Yuen Shi Chun
Yuen Shi Chun was born into a family of architects in Hong Kong, having studied civil engineering himself. He joined the newly formed Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1974 and was appointed Liuqin Principal. He has been the Research and Development Officer (Musical Instrument) ever since the position was created in 2003.

Yuen is currently also serving as an executive member of the China Nationalities Orchestra Society, Vice President of the China Society for the Management and Research on Scientific & Technological Achievements – Cultural Chapter, and a consultant to many manufacturers of musical instruments in China and other parts of the world. In 1993, he was made a member of the Expert Group on the Improvement of Musical Instruments under the Ministry of Culture, and sat on the Adjudication Committee for Technology Advancement Award. He was presented the Award for Arts Achievement (Music) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2003.

For the past two decades, Yuen has performed in more than 2,500 concerts of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. In his spare time, he has been conducting a self-financed project dedicated to the design, research and making of Chinese instruments. Instruments revived or improved under his hand number more than twenty, such as the Tang-style ruanxian, the quxiang (crooked-neck) pipa, the wuxian (five-string) pipa, the Qing-style pipa and the Qinqin. The modified models of liuqin with double resonators and ruanxian that he modified and improved won a Class Two Technology Advancement Award (1992 and 1996), and his ruanxian series won a National Class Three Technology Advancement Award (1998) from the Ministry of Culture of China. The Eco-huqin Series that he first developed in 2005 has since turned out new models of the gaohu, erhu, zhonghu, gehu and bass gehu that have been adopted by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Through reviving ancient instruments and improving modern instruments, Yuen has opened up new horizons in academic research and in the performing arts, therefore casting influence on the international music scene and academic sectors.
Yim Hok Man
Associate Director of The HKCO Orchestral Academy
Yim Hok Man

Yim Hok Man is a renowned percussionist with more than sixty years of performing experience. He is Associate Director of The HKCO Orchestral Academy. He was a percussionist with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra for twenty-two years before he joined the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in 1984. He is also Vice President of the Percussion Society under the auspices of the Chinese Musicians’ Association, a visiting professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the China Conservatory of Music and the Shenyang Conservatory of Music. He also teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Musicians trained by him can be found in various parts of the world. For more than half a century, Yim has made substantial contribution to percussion music in both China and Hong Kong. He has consummate knowledge in a comprehensive range of Chinese and Western percussion music, from performance to teaching, music composition, and research. His performing experience and repertoire, his efforts in carrying on traditions, assimilating cultures of the East and the West, as well as attention to development and innovation in percussive art demonstrate his artistic virtuosity and solid cultural insights. He has gone on touring performances to dozens of cities on four continents of the world, and has received unanimous acclaim from audiences, music critics, and the media alike. 


Yim’s solo album Master of Chinese Percussion – Yim Hok-man (1) is regarded as a quintessential representation of the art of percussion, and is released worldwide. It has become the benchmark for the testing of amplifiers and the functioning of sound equipment as adopted by audiophiles and audio manufacturers. It also won the recommendation of a U.S. audio magazine as an outstanding masterpiece by one of the world’s five greatest percussionists. 


On the celebration of the 60th National Day of the People’s Republic of China in 2009, Yim was honoured by the Guangzhou Daily as one of the “Top Artists from China since 1949”. In recognition of his distinguished contribution, he was presented with a Commendation Certificate by the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government in 2005. He was awarded ‘Artist of the Year’ by the Hong Kong Artists’ Guild in 1999.

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Guest Concertmaster
Shen Cheng
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Guest Concertmaster
Zhang Chongxue
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Guest Concertmaster
Yan Jiemin
Meet the members of the HKCO
The HKCO members are listed in Chinese stroke order.
The string section utilizes revolving seating on a systematic basis.
Musicians (except Principals and Assistant Principals) change seats systemically.

○ Principal
◆ Assistant Principal
◎ Acting Principal
◇ Acting Assistant Principal
▾ and Education Executive
□ Freelance Musician
★ Newly Joint Musician

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