Conductor takes his 'magic' to America and back

Lio Kuokman is a promising conductor and pianist in Macao. Photo provided to China Daily

Conductor and pianist Lio Kuokman can still recall the first classical music concert he attended at the age of 4. An orchestra from Macao was performing, and the program included Brahms' Symphony No 2.

"I was so attracted by the sound of the orchestra and particularly by the 'magic' of the conductor. I came home and told my mother that I wanted to be the man with the 'chopstick' (baton)," recalls the 34-year-old Lio.

His mother didn't buy him a baton, but she took him to his first piano lesson the week after.

More than two decades later, the Macao native has realized his dream, conducting and performing with renowned orchestras around the world.

During a recent concert with musicians from three symphony orchestras－from Shenzhen, Philadelphia and Macao－that was held at The Venetian Macao on Feb 4, Lio took the baton and conducted the grand Ode to Humanity. Composed by Chinese musician Wang Ning in 2011, it pays tribute to 2,000 years of Confucianism and expresses the core values of human civilization through music.

As the assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Lio took the baton when the orchestra performed it at the UN in New York last September.

In 1973, the Philadelphia Orchestra was invited by then US President Richard Nixon to visit China following his historic trip a year earlier. It was considered a landmark event in China's classical music scene, and the concert featuring Lio and Wang's work is testament to an enduring relationship.

"It's like destiny for the orchestra to play such a grand music work. We still have some musicians from the 1973 orchestra, who went on that historic tour," says Craig Hamilton, vice-president of global initiatives for the Philadelphia Orchestra. "We have been introducing young talented musicians from China to the United States for years, including Lio."

A graduate of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with first-class honors in piano performance, Lio obtained his master's degree from the Juilliard School of Music in New York and later studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the New England Conservatory in Boston.

For his contributions to the development of arts and culture, Lio received a Medal of Merit-Culture from the government of Macao last year.

"My job is to serve the composers, to re-create the sounds of their imagination through my conducting and understanding of the score," he says. "There is no limit for music and my goal is to be a better musician every day."

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