Born in Macao and educated as a pianist and a conductor at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory, Lio Kuokman is praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as ‘a startling conducting talent’.  He was the laureate of the third Svetlanov International Conducting Competition in Paris and has served as assistant conductor to music director Yannick Nézet-Seguin with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Programme Director of the Macao International Music Festival since January 2020, in the recent years Lio Kuokman has successfully collaborated with some of the leading orchestras across globe. Engagements over the past seasons in Europe, Northern America and Asia have included debuts and re-invitations with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK, Tokyo Metropolitan, Hiroshima and Kyoto Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Russian National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Latvian National, Philadelphia Orchestra (regular series and at the Vail Festival) and Detroit Symphony among many others. Recent distinguished appearances include a celebration concert with Hong Kong Philharmonic in the presence of the President of China Xi Jinping. Lio Kuokman enjoys a special relationship with Sinfonia Varsovia whom he conducted in a number of concerts featuring Nelson Goerner, Nicholas Angelich, Nelson Freire and Anne Queffélec during the 38^th Festival International de Piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, He also collaborated with Sinfonia Varsovia at the La Folle Journées Festival in Nantes, Japan and Warsaw.