Alain Chiu

Artisitc Director | Composer

An active composer in the music and multimedia scene of Hong Kong, Alain Chiu's music has been performed in concert halls and festivals through out the world. 

Chiu’s first multimedia opera, “Fish in the Hand” was premiered in 2015 and is one of the first Western Operas written for Cantonese.

Alain Chiu has received commissions from the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong Arts Festival Society, Kung Music Workshop, Sotheby’s Hong Kong and by numbers of musicians and groups including the Afiara Quartet, the Ives Quartet and Louis Siu among others. Chiu’s music was performed at the 40th to the 44th Hong Kong Arts Festival, WKCDA Freespace Micro 2013, 2012 Hong Kong Week at Taipei, Jumping Frames Italy Tour, Cannes Film Festival 2013 & 2014 and Guggenheim UBS No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia.

Chiu is the founder of the Trilateral Lab, an experimental performance collective. The Lab is dedicated to challenge existing form and structure of performing arts. It also aims at incorporating new technologies as a way to stimulate and cultivate new ideas. Its inaugural performance, Never Seen, was premiered in 2017 at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Chiu received his Bachelor of Music degree in composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Samuel Clarke Scholarship, where he studies composition with Conrad Susa, David Garner, and electronic music with Alden Jenks. He attended the European American Musical Alliance in Paris directed by Dr. Philip Lasser with scholarship and has participated in masterclass by Jo Kondo. His former teachers have included Cui Shi-Guang and Lane Harder.

Alain Chiu is the recipient of the Schulich Scholarship. He is also the Finalist of the International Music Prizes for Excellence in Composition. Chiu's music was recorded by the Grammy Award winning ensemble Orchestra of Our Time in 2011. The focused topics of Chiu’s music range from psychology, semantics, acoustics, literature, epistemology to current events. He is conducting an ongoing research through a series of works and performances, on how languages(with particular focus on Cantonese) and music can be weaved into one sonic fabric.

For more info visit: www.alainchiu.com