Lio Kuokman

Conductor

Programme Director, Macau International Music Festival
Resident Conductor, The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Biography

​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 Kuokman is praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a startling conducting talent.” 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 the Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Lio Kuokman has successfully collaborated with many leading orchestras across the globe. In 2021, he conducted a subscription concert at Vienna’s Konzerthaus with the Vienna Symphony.  Recently, he also led the first tour of Saudi Arabia with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with whom he is forging a strong relationship having conducted their 22/23 season opening concert and having returned for the New Year Concert. Among recent and forthcoming highlights are debuts with the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, NSO Dublin, as well as the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Madrid, RTV Slovenia and Gavle Symphony which all led to immediate re-invitations; and a return visit with the Philadelphia Orchestra for the Lunar New Year Concert.

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Reviews

” The orchestra conducted by Lio Kuokman,  who is very active in Macau and Hong Kong,  gave a driven performance full of intensity. Standing ovations and encores followed.”

Fredrik Björkman

Arbetarbladet

“Lio Kuokman, who returned for the third time to the Halle aux Grains, conducts Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony without a score. His dazzling reading, which is full of a conquering hedonism, far from a certain pompierism too often heard, sublimates this abundant work where to this sound hurricane can only respond a thunder of applause.”

Jean-Félix Marquette

Utmisol

“A startling conducting talent.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer

“…At the helm was the gifted young conductor Lio Kuokman who handled the baton with a grace and ease that matched the aesthetic of the musical landscape he sought to craft. The performance was a swirling milieu of orchestral color that left the listener just this side of paradise. As dream-inspired as Coleridge’s original reverie, between Kuokman’s clear interpretation and the evocative playing of the orchestra, the constantly shifting orchestral landscape was awash with color and light.”

The Blade

Featured News

Lio Kuokman Makes Orchestre National d’ile de France Debut 19 April

Lio Kuokman makes his debut with the Orchestre National d’ile de France at Philharmonie de Paris on Wednesday, 19 April. He will conduct a lyrical programme featuring Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 (with soloist Jonathan Fournel), Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite and...