Conductor Lio Kuokman makes his Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo debut on 31 March. The scintillating programme features the world premiere and festival commission Antigone by François Meïmoun with text by Géraldine Aïdan, Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question and Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3.

The Orchestra writes, “At the head of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Lio Kuokman puts two emblematic works in the history of American music face to face: Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question and, as a possible answer, Aaron Copland’s fresco Symphony No. 3. Between these monuments, François Meïmoun revisits the myth of Antigone in a creation for reciter and orchestra, to which Laurent Stocker lends his voice.”

​Currently serving as Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra; Programme Director of the Macao International Music Festival; Principle Guest Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Macao Orchestra, Lio is praised as “a startling conducting talent” (Philadelphia Inquirer). He was the second prize winner of the third Svetlanov International Conducting Competition in Paris with audience prize and orchestra prize and has served as the first Chinese Assistant Conductor with Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Recent and forthcoming highlights include conducting the Vienna Symphony, a tour and season opening and New Year concerts with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, NSO Dublin, RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Madrid, RTV Slovenia and Gavle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, NTSO in Taiwan, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Detroit Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK, Hiroshima, Tokyo Metropolitan, Kyoto Symphony, Russian National Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic and Latvian National Symphony.

Lio Kuokman recently collaborated with National Taichung Theater on a production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Other opera performances include titles such as La bohème, L’elisir d’amore, Pagliacci, Turandot, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly and Carmen.

Educated at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory, Kuokman is a founding member and President of the Macao Chamber Music Association. For his contributions to the development of arts and culture, Kuokman received a Certificate of Commendation and Medal of Cultural Merit from both governments of Hong Kong and Macao. In 2021 Kuokman was the recipient of the Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons award.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit printempsdesarts.mc

Photo: Tey Tat Keng